No Longer an Arc
by FalseOrdeals
Summary: He was a stain, a disappointment to the legacy of the Arcs. He couldn't use aura well. Disowned by his family, Jaune almost faces death in the wilds. A new power is granted to him as he is about to die. He can't use this power at Beacon. Qrow and Ozpin had told him not to. So when Jaune is possibly the strongest Freshman at Beacon Academy, he is now known to others as the weakest.
1. Chapter 1 - Disowned

**Author's Note**

 **I just first wanted to say that the plot of this story and everything came kind of on a whim. This is also a SECONDARY OFFHAND PROJECT. What does this mean?**

 **Possibly little updates.**

 **But couple of things to note as this fic starts.**

 **Slight AU**

 **It's still remnant with hunters and everything. There are just small differences in terms of characters and setting. To list a few:**

 **The Arc family is ridiculously royal and prestigious in this story**

 **Many characters will be from a 'recognizable' family. For example. Cardin Winchester. 'Winchester' will be a AU name where in this fanfic the Winchester family is a well known hunter/huntress family.**

 **Jaune does not have great mass of aura.**

 **2\. Pairing**

 **Completely undecided at this point.**

 **With that in mind, let's begin**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY is not owned by me in any way or form. Credit is due to its creators.**

* * *

A small ten year old boy walked inside. It had been a long time since he was called by his father. Not knowing the tragedy that would befall him, he walked inside. He squinted his eyes slightly as he needed to adjust his eyes to the light. After a while, he was able to open his eyes normally, and noticed that there was a bag in the middle of the room, in front of his father's throne.

He carefully walked towards the bag as he saw his father looking down upon him. Nervously, the boy started talking.

"F-F-Father? Why have you called me here?" His father's face expression didn't change. It seemed like a millennia before his deep voice bellowed out.

"I have called you today in order to tell you of a decision made long time ago." The boy's face was filled with curiosity. He listened attentively as his father continued.

"Being an Arc, expectations are followed. You have not met them. No… You surprised us with how incompetent you were." The child's eyes widened. What was his father talking about?

"Couple of years ago, you took the aura resonation test, just as your siblings had. Almost all Arcs show great reading. You, your aura ratings showed absolutely abysmal results!" The calm face on his father's face was gone now, and only anger was on it.

"As an Arc, you have completely failed! You have showed absolutely no aptitude in anything! You are a living stain on the legacy! And we have come to a decision. You are disowned as an Arc. The bag in front of you is my final gift of sympathy. You are a son of mine after all."

The blood in his veins ran cold. What was happening? Just up till ten minutes ago, he was having fun with his older siblings. No, this was just a test. It had to be. There was no way that this was happening to him.

"You are to leave the Family mansion… Now." Tears forming in his eyes, he walked to grab the bag. His tears started to fall as he slowly headed out. Out in the hall, he saw his brothers and sisters lined up. None of them were looking at him. They all had empty looks on their faces.

Why? Being the youngest in the Arc family, he was raised with much care and protection from his older siblings. Seeing the sudden change in their demeanor hurt him so much.

He pushed open the giant doors of the mansion with his small body. There was a blizzard, as if it was reflecting upon the emotions that his father was feeling. Anger.

He slowly trudged outside. He looked back once more. He wished for someone to come out and say that this was a prank. The only sound that greeted him was the sound of the door shutting.

The cold winds bit at his skin, and he knew that he had to move on.

The boy didn't know how long he walked down the mountains that the family mansion was on. It felt like hours. He was shivering, it was too cold. It seemed that he would be able to find warmth soon, he saw a light in the distance.

Having newfound strength from the hope, he continued to move forward, one step at a time. Until he heard a low growl.

He froze in fear. Only one thing could make those kinds of noises. Turning around slowly, he was met with two Beowollves.

He stumbled. He reached into his bag. His father must have given him something to defend himself with. Perhaps one of the weapons from the armory.

Please, please, please, please… He prayed for any sort of mercy from the gods above. His eyes widened as he saw a hilt. He had something to protect himself!

His hope was drained when he pulled it out of his bag. It was a knife. The knife was short, about five inches long. There was no way that he would be able to defend himself.

He turned around and started to run frantically. He heard the sound of foot prints of snow being made right behind him. He knew that he would never be able to outrun Beowolves. But had to.

He let out a scream of pain as he felt many sharp objects dig into his shoulder. A huge weight followed after, making him tumble in the snow. He reached for his shoulder to hold the wound when he saw that one of the Beowolves was biting him.

Vision going white from the pain, he held the knife with one hand and blindly stabbed in the direction of his shoulder.

A loud yelp joined the sound of his cries of pain as he felt the weight on his shoulder release. His knife was stuck inside the Beowolf's neck and the boy tried to hurriedly take out the knife.

It was then that he felt his stomach get impaled. The second Beowolf had run directly at him. Coughing blood, the boy and the wolf rolled around in the snow, leaving behind a trail of red.

"No, no, no, NOOOOOO!" The boy let out a helpless yell as the only weapon he had went out of his sight. The knife was too far away from him, and he still had another Beowolf to deal with. His back faced the snow while the front of his body faced the sky. Looking up, he saw the Beowolf on top of him as the wolf leaned down to aim for the killing blow.

Tears streamed down his face. Was this how he was gonna die? His dream of being a hero, everything, was everything just going to end like this?

No. He wouldn't let it end like this. He had to show his father that he was an Arc.

Letting out a strangled roar of anger, the boy tried to intercept the bite with his hands. But he was too weak. He felt sharp teeth dig into his neck. His left hand was also impaled from trying to stop the teeth from closing down on him. The tattoo of the Arc family showed on the back of his impaled hand.

It hurt. It hurt so much. But he wouldn't let everything end here. With the remainder of his strength, he grabbed the largest tooth inside the Beowolf. With everything he had, he twisted the tooth, causing it to shatter.

Using the tooth as his new weapon, he quickly flipped the tooth, making the sharp edge face the wolf.

"AAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHH!" He slammed his arm down, feeling the flesh that he pierced. The Beowolf on top of him stopped moving.

He felt warm liquid trickle down his chest. He didn't know if it was his blood, or the Beowolf's blood. He pushed the dead body aside and tried to stand up. The adrenaline numbed his pain, but it still felt like hell. He managed to somehow actually stand up. It lasted only a moment. His legs gave in and he fell down into the snow.

His eyes were half-closed. He felt so tired. Blood tainted the pure white snow. It created a cruel, yet beautiful scene of a dying boy. He closed his eyes. He needed a small rest….. Yes, that was what he needed…..

"Boy, do you wish to live?" It took almost everything to open his closed eyes. His vision was blurry. He couldn't see clearly.

"Of course…" It came out as a weak whisper. Nobody could hear such a quiet response. But the figure did. That figure smiled. He'd need much more determination from the boy though.

"I asked, do you want to live?" The voice entered the boy's ears again.

"Yes… Yes!" He croaked out. He tried desperately to stand and face the one that was offering to be his savior.

"Are you willing to throw everything away in order to live? The Arc name, everything?"

"YES!" The child roared as he was on his knees now. The Arc name meant so little to him right now. He would abandon his Arc name. He would never the carry the name now. His family didn't want him,

there was no point clinging to the past now.

He ripped the Beowolf tooth from the dead body and slashed it across the Arc emblem branded on the back of his already bloodied hand.

"I am no longer Jaune Arc!" The boy now named Jaune yelled. The figure smiled. This boy would serve as the perfect champion.

With that, Jaune's vision went black as he fainted.

* * *

He opened his groggy eyes. With a groan, he tried to stand up when he felt sharp pain shoot throughout his entire body. With a curse, Jaune layed back down.

"Careful with those wounds young one." Jaune's head snapped towards the voice. What he saw was a middle aged male with glasses. He was wearing a green scarf and seemed to be drinking something from a mug.

'Wait, where am I' Jaune thought as he quickly scanned the room he was in. The room was unique. It had gears around, everywhere. Noticing Jaune's confused face, the man started to speak.

"I'm sorry about not providing the most comfortable of environments for you. With all kinds of people around these days, we couldn't bring you to a medical facility. Normally, you would wake up in a cell and be released after figuring your identity. But…." The man ended his speech as he tilted his head towards Jaune's hand.

Jaune understood the gesture. The man had saw the Arc emblem. The man knew he was an Arc.

"Luckily, our patrols had managed to find you in time. Now, may I ask why an Arc was lying around almost dead at midnight?" The man raised an eyebrow while asking this question.

When he noticed the injured boy turn away, he let out a grunt of annoyance.

'Great' the man thought. It seemed that the boy wouldn't answer for some reason. He hated unanswered questions. And now he had a bunch of unanswered questions. But he would let the boy keep his privacy. The situation did seem extreme…..

"Do you know who I am?" He decided to switch topics as the boy seemed uncomfortable. When he saw the boy nod no, he answered.

"I'm Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy." Jaune's eyes widened at his. Beacon Academy was one of the three most prestigious academies in the world of Remnant.

"Let me in." Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the immediate answer the boy gave.

"Let's make a deal then. You tell me about your current situation, and I'll do everything in my power to enroll you in the Academy. Including that on your other hand." Now Jaune raised an eyebrow? What was Ozpin talking about?

Looking at the back of his right hand, he noticed a strange glyph like marking on it. He stared at it confusingly. When did it appear? He didn't remember anything after his fight with the Beowolves….

Ozpin let out a sigh when he saw the confused look on the boy's face. It seemed that this would yet be another unanswered question…..

"I'll take your deal. I'm Jaune Ar– No. I'm Jaune and I'm no longer an Arc." Jaune told Ozpin the events that occurred.

Throughout the whole story, Ozpin just carefully nodded at times, taking a sip of his coffee. He knew that the Arc family was very… Strict in terms of ability and power. But to abandon his own son? Was Jaune really that weak? He walked towards the boy and embraced him. Jaune had experienced things that no child should have.

"Jaune, can you try emitting aura?" Ozpin asked as he backed away after the short embrace. Jaune nodded at the question and closed his eyes to concentrate. Soon, he had emitted his aura.

To say that he was shocked was… an understatement. Not only was his aura weak for an Arc, it was weak for a human, even compared to those that weren't hunters or huntresses. Ozpin scratched his head as he understood why the Arc family would do such a horrid thing.

He thought what he should do with the boy in front of him. He already made a deal with him, saying he would enroll him in the academy. But enrolling someone with his level of aura was suicidal….

"Jaune, how old are you?"

"Ten." A curt reply came. That meant that Jaune had 8 years. Ozpin quickly formulated a plan in his head and nodded. Yes, this would do.

"Jaune, I'm going to tell you two important things." Jaune nodded as Ozpin continued.

"One. In order to enroll in the academy, you will need to undergo training." Jaune understood. He knew he was weak and needed basic training. "There's a dusty crow that is going to train you. I'm headmaster of the academy, my hands are busy. I will contact him and you will train with him."

"Second. You will enroll in the academy once you are 18." Jaune's eyes widened. He couldn't wait eight years! He was about to object when Ozpin interrupted him.

"Currently, for first years, 18 is the age in which almost all students enroll. I want you to be able to work with people around you. You can agree to this, or I won't enroll you at all." Jaune grumbled as he murmured an agreement. He wanted strength, and this was a free entrance that he wouldn't miss.

Ozpin smiled seeing the child nod. He quickly took out his scroll and contacted Jaune's future teacher.

Jaune felt sleepy soon after the conversation. He would begin training soon! He would become strong, so strong that his family would regret abandoning him.

But for now, he needed rest.

Currently, he felt like…..

* * *

 _Eight years later…._

Shit. That's what he literally felt like as he felt a cold liquid pour down his hair. He let out a quiet sigh as he heard laughter around him. It was only a week into his first year and he was already the center of attention, something he thought he could avoid. He knew he couldn't with the initial aura projection ranking that took place in front of everyone….

"Jauney boy, are you alright down there?" Jaune heard a snide voice above him.

Cardin. Cardin Winchester. Jaune's favorite first year! Not. Jaune turned to look at the smirking face of Cardin. Jaune didn't know why, actually scratch that, Jaune knew exactly why Cardin picked fights with him. While Cardin came from the prestigious Winchester family, Jaune took the name of a unheard family. Having the weakest aura level in the school, Cardin had marked Jaune as the one to bother for the rest of eternity.

"Yep, I'm just fine down here!" Jaune yelled back. More laughter could be heard from the crowd around him.

Jaune was dubbed as the weakest of all the student body as soon as they saw him project his aura. He could barely project more than a child could! So the student body would always wonder how someone like him got in….

Ever since then, people would make small jabs at him or prank him. They all thought they were better than him….

They didn't know anything. The hell that Qrow dubbed as training that he went through, the time blood and sweat he poured from effort, the time invested to understand his power.

But this was something that Qrow had planned. A plan that Ozpin even agreed to…..

* * *

 _6 Years ago…._

"A mock battle? Finally!" A 12 year old Jaune exclaimed with delight. For the first two years, Qrow had put Jaune through a physical workout hell. Endless miles of sprinting, thousands of physical exercises, it was something no one should EVER go through.

So it was surprising to Jaune that they would actually do something else. He grabbed the wooden sword that Qrow threw at him.

"A single blow, that's all you have to land." Qrow had said very briefly. Jaune smiled when he heard the condition to his victory.

This would be a piece of cake.

With a bunch of bruises, a black eye, and (he was sure that they were broken) a few broken ribs later, Jaune had learned that this would infact, not be a piece of cake.

It was so frustrating. Qrow was even drinking alchohol and was drunk currently. Even in his drunken stupor, Qrow could deflect, counter, guard everything that Jaune threw at him.

Qrow at the moment was looking curiously at the mark in Jaune's right hand. He always wondered what it was before, but tried to see if he could do something to activate it.

"No wonder the Arc family kicked you out. You're pathetic, even I would kick you out!" He guffawed while watching for Jaune's reaction in the corner of his eyes. He saw Jaune stiffen. Good, exactly what wanted to see.

Jaune felt rage course through his body. Qrow, along with Ozpin should know not to talk about his fucking past!

"Give up Jaune! I wasted two years spending them on a shit stain like you!"

His breathing quickened. Jaune stood up from the ground and faced Qrow. His vision started to blur. He didn't know what was happening. Normally, he would have charged directly at Qrow, swinging wildly.

But something told him to do something different. Jaune didn't know why, but it felt correct to do what he was about to do.

He raised the wooden sword high above his head, arching his arm back. With an angry roar, he swung the sword straight down.

Qrow didn't know what to expect. He saw the boy raise his wooden sword high in the air.

'What was he gonna do at that distance?' Qrow thought. Jaune was rather far away from Qrow. Qrow knew that Jaune couldn't use aura well. Was Jaune gonna throw the stick at him? He snickered inwardly at the thought. His small moment of laughter shattered instantly.

Qrow didn't know what hit him. All he felt was sharp pain spread throughout his chest. Looking down, he saw… Black? What seemed like black aura slash had cut him from the distance. When Qrow looked at Jaune, he froze.

The boy's blue eyes were now a bloodthirsty red. The white of his eye was now black. Jaune's body was hunched in an inhumane way as he stared back at Qrow.

Qrow's body yelled at him to run away as he stared back at the boy. This was dangerous as hell, but Qrow would make sure he would return the boy back to normal.

Jaune was his first student after all.

To say that Ozpin was surprised when a bloodied Qrow came into his office would be a huge understatement. Qrow was carrying an unconscious Jaune and dropped him down to the floor before collapsing himself.

"I….. I don't…. Know… What.. The… Fuck...is wrong….. With him…" Qrow barely managed to finish the sentence. He was wheezing each word out. Qrow told Ozpin the event after he managed to catch his breath.

* * *

 _One year ago, before Beacon admission…._

After the incident five years ago, Qrow and Ozpin tried to think of two things.

One, what the fuck had happened to Jaune.

Two, how to use it to Jaune's advantage.

For the past five years, Qrow had tried to make Jaune control and use the power that was found. This was Jaune's only true weapon that he could have as a hunter. Jaune's aura was too weak, they would use this newfound power to make up for it.

After repeated simulations and many near death encounters, Jaune had somehow managed to get a small grasp of the power. Albeit small, Jaune had enormous power when using it. There still existed many problems though.

First was the appearance. When Jaune was using this power, he looked a spawn of hell. He had an emotionless look on his face, with the terrible black and red eyes.

Second was control. Yes, although Jaune could control the power, it was still random. He could lose control anytime, and would require hunters and huntresses of Qrow's caliber to shut him down. Qrow was a very realistic man, and knew that there would be little to no progress in terms of control in the next year.

So he came up with a plan.

Jaune would attend Beacon next year with many other students. In order to avoid harming other students Jaune would have to not use the mysterious power. Jaune would have to try and make use of his horrible aura throughout Beacon. In personal training sessions with Qrow, Jaune would be able to use the power.

When Qrow told Jaune the plan, Jaune could only stare at Qrow with a blank expression. It was true that he should avoid using the power…. But to use his aura? Was Qrow asking for him to get his ass kicked in mock battles and everything?

Ozpin had agreed to the plan and Jaune knew that he was doomed. He was gonna be deemed the weakest piece of shit in the academy. He only hoped that people would leave him alone….

* * *

 _Present time…..._

So here he was with his only hope shattered. People had immediately singled him out and bullied him.

Oh Joy! Jaune just knew that he was gonna have fun in Beacon.

His only saving grace was the sound of the bell ringing, signaling the time for class to start soon. The crowd dispersed, and Cardin left with a smirk, leaving Jaune on the ground with Coke drenching his hair.

Yeah, he was really, really gonna enjoy his new life at Beacon.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Hope you guys have a good day!**

 **FalseOrdeals**


	2. Chapter 2 - School Life

**Author's Note**

 **I really want to apologize for the late update. This chapter was done around May, but life made me forget about uploading. For those of you who don't know, I just finished Freshman year at College. But I had the whole crisis of what I really wanted to do in my life. So I've been spending a lot of time discussing with my parents and my own self of what I should do.**

 **I apologize once again and I'll try to update more frequently, at least once a month.**

 **So, I've gotten some other differences that exist in this AU!**

 **Teams**

 **There exists no formal teams. Although there will be teams, they will be different than how they are in the Rooster Teeth show. This will be explained in this chapter.**

 **2\. Jaune's personality**

 **I think this is a given based on the previous chapter. I just wanted to make sure that Jaune in this fic didn't end up as a depressed, 'I will die alone with no one remembering me' kind of character. He will be sort of introverted, yes, but I wanted to make sure that he still had that funny attitude at times.**

 **Responses to Reviewers:**

 **CoolHandJaune: Here ya go! :)**

 **Karlos1234ify: Thank you!**

 **Jaune Black Smudge: I'll go into details about teams in this chapter!**

 **Overall, I've gotten some PM's and others about pairing but still undecided :(**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY is not owned by me in any way or form. Credit is due to its creators.**

* * *

He looked at the time.

Shit. He was already 15 minutes late to class. He couldn't help it. He didn't want to walk in class with the smell and stickiness of soda on him. He finished washing his hair of the beverage and was currently sprinting towards the classroom.

Jaune took a deep breath as he hesitantly opened the door.

Thankfully, it seemed that the lecturer at the moment didn't notice him. He crouched down and tried to tip-toe his way to a empty seat. He let out a sigh. It seemed that he would be able to go through first period without any prob–

"So, Mr. Crocea, is there any reason why you were so late to class? It's only been a few days since classes started, and I don't want this to become a habit." A rambling voice was heard.

'Fuck me for being overly optimistic.' Crocea was the last name that Jaune had decided to take. It was based upon the sword that his Great-Great-Grandfather used. When he was little, he would always look up to the sword as a symbol of heroism. That was why he based his name off it.

"Uhhhh… I had to do some important things." It was the weak response that Jaune gave. He couldn't help it, he couldn't think of anything that would seem as a legit excuse.

The professor had a doubtful expression on his face. Oobleck let out a sigh as he continued the lecture. He knew that the boy was looked down upon by the student body. But Bartholomew wouldn't solve the student's problems for them. It was up to them to stand up for themselves. And until Jaune made an active effort to do just that, he would not do anything about it.

Simultaneously, Jaune also let out a sigh.

The less people that know, the better. It was what Ozpin had told him. Currently, the only people that knew about Jaune's condition was Ozpin, Qrow, Jaune himself, and the combat instructor, Glynda. He was not only faced with the harassment of the student body, but also the disappointing looks of the teachers.

Jaune quickly tried to catch up on what Professor Oobleck was teaching about. It seemed that they were talking about a group project….?

Oh no.

Jaune slammed his head down to the table, causing some people to stare at him with questioning looks. No one would want to be partners with him. He would be the one asking, begging people to let him join their group.

'Please let the groups be decided by the professor' Jaune prayed.

"In order to promote teamwork with other hunters and huntresses, and allow you to meet new people, I have already decided the groups." The class groaned at this.

'YES!' Jaune did a silent fistpump. At least he didn't have to go through the humiliation of begging to others. He heard a silent click as the professor uploaded a spreadsheet holding the groups up on the board.

Searching for his name, he found that groups were in numbers of four. He found his name listed with three others. Pyrrha Nikos, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Jaune Crocea.

Jaune started to move to find his group members as others did the same. There was a problem. He didn't know what any of them looked like.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around. He was greeted with three females. He assumed that they were his group members. There wasn't any reason someone would tap his shoulder otherwise.

"Hello there! I'm Pyrrha. It's nice to meet you!" Jaune looked at the female greeting him. She had bright red hair. Her eyes were a shining green. She was wearing the regular academy clothing, but Jaune could immediately recognize the fit and slim body that she owned. Expected of a huntress.

"Hi….. Just curious, how do you know how I look like?" Jaune asked with a small glimpse of hope. Perhaps she knew him or noticed him for other reasons!

"Oh, through the initial aura projection ranking. I saw your results and you.. just.. stood out….." Pyrrha ended her sentence hesitantly as she saw the growing scowl on Jaune's face. Perhaps she shouldn't have said that.

Looking at the other two, he saw two contrasting colors of hair. One girl had black hair with amber eyes. She wore a unique bow tie on her head. The girl had a stoic expression on her face. The other girl had snow white hair. She owned blue eyes and had a scowl on her face.

"The one with black hair is Blake Belladonna, with the other being Weiss Schnee." Pyrrha introduced the two. Jaune gave a small sigh of relief. It seemed that Pyrrha wouldn't be rude or anything to him at all.

The group headed towards the library to start working. Jaune quickly read over the assignment while they were walking. It seemed that they had to research and present on the topic of war between humans and faunus.

Finding an empty table, the group gathered and sat there. There were a couple of things that Jaune noticed.

One, Blake and Weiss had a unique relationship. It seemed that they didn't like each other, but tried to work with one another. Like people who were forced to work together. Jaune could tell by the way they would grimace as they talked to another, or the way they would unconsciously face the other direction.

Two, all of them were intellectual. The group worked at a rapid pace in gathering information on different skirmishes and events that happened between humans and faunus.

Three, Weiss hated faunus, while Blake defended them. Jaune could only stare at the with wide eyes when they slowly entered a brawl with words. He expected Weiss to hate faunus, she was a Schnee after all. But he never had seen anyone defend faunus with so much passion. He noted this trait about Blake. He wasn't racist towards faunus or anything, but he would make sure not to say anything of the sorts in front of her.

The argument started when the group was deciding which battle to present on. Weiss wanted to present the battle of Atlas, in which the battle ended with humans ending victorious once the Schnee family had provided both dust and manpower. Jaune couldn't help but let out a small snort as he heard this. It seemed that the little princess wanted to show off about her family.

Blake on the other hand proposed the Revolution of Vacuo. Jaune couldn't help but think her idea was better. The battle marked the beginning of faunus rights, and it seemed right to present this battle in a educational environment.

It wasn't like he could join the conversation. Blake and Weiss were firing back words at each other. There was just no way Jaune could get a word in. Jaune just rested his face on his hand, using his elbow as a stand.

"Sorry about this." Jaune turned and saw that Pyrrha was giving an apologetic glance. Jaune was about to answer back before she continued.

"I'm sure you know that the Schnee family have a bad relation with faunus. But Blake is actually a faunus." Jaune's eyes widened at this. Ah. So that was why she was so defensive in her argument.

"Do you know what kind?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha had told him that she was a cat faunus. Blake must of have overheard their small exchange with what Jaune assumed was with her ears perched on her head. She must have used the bow as a way to hide them.

Blake was glaring at Jaune and Pyrrha. She must have not wanted him to know that she was a faunus. Pyrrha mouthed the word 'sorry' at her.

Jaune could only respond by giving Blake a small wave with a forced smile. He didn't want to anger her any further. She seemed mad enough already….

It seemed that this caused the two to stop arguing for a moment. Jaune quickly took this as a chance to start talking.

"I think we should listen to Blake this time." He couldn't even say his reasoning because of the cold glare that Weiss was giving him. Jaune swore that he could feel a hole form on his head from the intensity. At least Blake was giving him a look of small gratitude.

"And why should I value the opinion of someone like you?" A sharp voice replied. Oh boy.

Pyrrha was about to speak when Weiss interrupted her.

"You too Pyrrha! Why are you even trying to be friendly with him? Someone of your status shouldn't even be near him!" Oh boy! Jaune was actually surprised that the heiress was able to hold her outburst for this long.

But one thing had Jaune curious. He had never heard of the family name Nikos before, so what did the Schnee mean by saying her status? Unable to hide his curiosity, Jaune asked.

"What do you mean? Is Pyrrha famous or something?" The shocked looks of all three females had told Jaune that she was indeed famous. He didn't know every famous people. He spent the past 8 years trying to control some demonic power within him, not seeing what popular news was going on. The only famous names he knew were ones that his family had talked about when he was a child….

"You don't know Pyrrha? Top graduate of Sanctum Academy? Winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row?" Weiss voice only got increasingly more agitated as Jaune nodded sideways to every question asked.

Weiss let out a large sound of anger before yelling back at them.

"Whatever! Just do what you want!" She stomped her way out of the library, leaving the three to stare at her retreating back.

An awkward silence enveloped the table they were at, and Jaune tried to break it.

"Damn Pyrrha, you're pretty cool!" The awkward silence lingered. Sighing, Jaune just stood up to gather information about the Revolution of Vacuo.

* * *

Blake let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that their presentation had ended well. She hated to admit it, but Weiss was intelligent. So although Weiss was frowning during the presentation, Weiss still presented the information almost perfectly.

Another thing that she noticed was Jaune. She saw his… abysmal aura projection, and did not expect much from him. Seeing him work had changed her mind. He worked efficiently, and presented the information well too.

It seemed that Jaune entered Beacon in a similar manner that she did.

While Blake could hold her own in battle due to her past, she was able to enter the academy because of her intelligence. She received excellent grades in the entrance exam, and thus gained her admission. It would make sense that Jaune was able to enroll in Beacon because of this.

It was a bonus that he didn't seem bothered at all by the fact that she was a faunus. Perhaps she could work with Jaune in the future. If anything related to group projects came up, she could see herself working with him and Pyrrha. If it was anything combat related, she would make sure to avoid him.

Their group went to sit down after their presentation. Jaune let out a sigh of relief as their turn ended. It seemed that their group did well. What he noticed during the presentation was just how famous Pyrrha was.

Other students would stare at her during her section. It seemed that they hailed her words as law, nodding their heads furiously after every word that she said. Because of Pyrrha, Jaune was able to say his part of the presentation without any problems. There were no booing or rude comments to anything that he said.

It seemed that their presentation was the last, as Professor Oobleck dismissed the class. It was time for next period. Jaune let out a sigh. He knew he was gonna get some rude comments in this class.

Grudgingly, Jaune stood up and headed towards his next class.

Combat class.

* * *

Glynda gave Jaune a small nod after she had saw him enter her class. She knew of his peculiar situation, but would still make him participate in the mock battles.

'Give him hell!' Was the response that Qrow had given her. Jaune's aura was really weak, and she would try to help increase it in terms of strength and amount.

Seeing that it was time for her to begin, she began the roulette to decide who would fight in today's session. When the roulette stopped at the name Cardin Winchester, both Glynda and Jaune let out a sigh. It was pretty obvious who the teen would choose.

"Cardin Winchester," Glynda recited the words with a hint of exhaustion. "Please choose who you would like to fight."

Cardin let a smile out and yelled the name.

"Jaune Crocea!" A loud groan was heard in the crowd. The owner of the groan stood up and slowly headed towards the stadium. Cardin still had the large smile plastered across his face. Jaune let out a sigh. It seemed that he would gain some bruises.

Jaune took out his sword and shield. He didn't have any special weapons or anything. He saw the giant black mace of Cardin's slam on the ground. Jaune let out a nervous chuckle. Glynda signalled the beginning of the fight.

Cardin charged towards Jaune with his mace held high over his head.

God Cardin was slow, so slow! After trying to dodge and see the swings of Qrow everyday for the past six years, the swing of Cardin seemed like slow motion. But he wouldn't let himself drown by the tide of the battle.

Jaune loved to fight actually. It was in his blood. No matter what kind of fight it was, it excited him. Jaune found out first hand that even little spars could cause the mysterious power to emerge. And Qrow found a wonderful solution.

A one-sided beating. At first, getting beat up caused Jaune to get angry. No one liked getting hit for no reason after all. That anger caused his power to overwhelm him. After training with Qrow and getting beat up everyday, Jaune slowly learned to control his temper. So Qrow told him to get beat up in Combat Class.

And so he would. Raising his shield up slowly, Jaune acted as if he managed to block Cardin's mace in the knick of time. Jaune was actually surprised. In terms of just strength, Cardin seemed to be on par with Qrow. It seemed that Jaune didn't have to act as if he was blown across the stadium. Because he actually was.

Looking at the monitor next to him while standing up, Jaune saw a huge portion of his aura depleted from the single blow. He grunted as he stood up. It didn't matter how much he trained, or how strong he was. Getting hit by a swing like that hurt like a bitch.

It was just another list to add to the amount of disadvantages he had because of his low aura reserves. Single blows could deplete his aura, and the next blow that followed could kill him.

Jaune heard Cardin run towards him. He turned around to get up slowly, acting as if he could not react in time. He grit his teeth as he felt the mace ram into his ribs. His body once again flew across like a ragdoll.

Jaune sighed in relief once he heard Glynda call off the match.

"Cardin Winchester has won the fight. Mr. Crocea, please take your time in recovering, I'll let you rest there for a while." Glynda had a small frown on her face when Jaune looked at her.

"Perhaps you would choose someone of more capabilities, Mr. Winchester?" Cardin only let out a small reply as he headed back to the audience.

"Yes it's just that I wanted to help train a fellow huntsmen in need!" Cardin shrugged his shoulder as he said this, and it elicited small laughter from the watching students.

Jaune just stared the ceiling as he was still lying down on the ground. With a small groan, he stood up, while clutching his side. He walked up to Glynda.

"Ms. Goodwitch, may I have permission for early dismissal to lunch?" Glynda nodded at the question. Jaune slowly trudged his way to the academy cafeteria.

* * *

Beacon Academy had a unique system for students. In order for the students to continually build up battle experience with the Grimm, Beacon had implemented this system.

The system had consisted of points called Hunter's Points. HP for short. Students would be able to use these points for their own benefits. Food could be bought through these points. Also, these points could be exchanged for Lien, allowing students to go to the city for their own leisure.

In order to gain these points, students had to hunt Grimm. Different amount of points were given to the students depending on the Grimm. In order to hunt the stronger kinds, teams would be formed. Teams consisted of usually four members, and provided two things.

First, teams allowed students to traverse deeper into Forest to hunt for stronger Grimm. Students did not want to go hunting every meal, and would try to amount as many points as they could in a single hunting session.

Two, teachers and the headmaster would be able to see possible teams that could form in the sophomore. In their sophomore year, they would officially be in teams of four to take on quests. In their freshman year, they had the freedom to switch team members whenever they liked, in order to see who they had the best synergy with.

But hunting with a team was not the only option. Students could hunt alone, although it was very inefficient. The weakest kinds of Grimm, those such as Beowolves or Boarbatusks only provided a single point. Grimm such as Nevermores or Deathstalkers provided 200 points.

For Jaune, he would have to hunt alone. He would only aim for the single point Grimm. He didn't want his power to suddenly run rampant. He would only hunt those that he could kill right away, before he could get excited.

So here he was, out currently in the Emerald Forest. He had currently amounted only three points. A single meal costed around three to five points. He would need to hunt some more to make sure he would have enough points for dinner too.

He heard gunfire off in the distance. Jaune was out in the forest for some time. It seemed that classes had ended and other students were starting to hunt for points.

This was another drawback of hunting solo. The solo hunter would have to try and find the weak Grimm. Ursas and Beowolves traveled in small groups. During the time in which Jaune would be able to find and hunt two or three groups, a team could possibly kill a King Taijitu or a Nevermore, depending on their skill.

Jaune ignored the gunshot and continued to his trek into the Forest. He wanted to find and gather his points as quick as possible. He didn't want to miss dinner today…..

* * *

He came back to Beacon holding a bag with the contents inside being the masks of the Beowolves that he had hunted earlier. He entered a large hallway filled with students that were lined up. After waiting a long while, he was called to a desk.

Pouring the contents of the bag down, the desk attendant started to count the number of Grimm remains that Jaune had brought.

Handing over his scroll, the desk attendant entered some codes into the scroll. As he took his scroll back, he saw the number of points he had. Eight. At least he would be able to eat both meals today. He would probably leave to hunt again in dinner.

As he headed to leave, he saw Pyrrha walk in. Pyrrha was holding what seemed like Ursa masks. They were individually worth three points.

Pyrrha noticed Jaune and walked towards him.

"I was wondering where you were. I was gonna ask if you wanted to team up for hunting. I tried finding you after Combat Class, but I couldn't find you." Oh. Was Pyrrha in his Combat Class? He didn't notice.

"Perhaps you would like to go hunting together tonight or some other day?" Jaune was surprised. He didn't expect someone so accomplished like her to want to go teaming with him. He was about to politely decline before he stopped himself.

Maybe teaming with her wouldn't be bad at all. He would need people to work with in order to get a team in sophomore year. He didn't want to get paired with a bunch of strangers.

"Alright." Jaune replied. Pyrrha smiled at this as she went to get her points. Together, they headed towards the cafeteria to eat.

'Yeah' Jaune thought as he was having a conversation with Pyrrha. A friend was what Jaune needed.

* * *

He didn't expect to be eating lunch with five other females. Soon after Jaune and Pyrrha had found a table and started eating, Weiss had joined them. It seemed that Weiss wanted to end on the good side of Pyrrha. Later, a small girl joined, sitting next to Weiss.

"Weisssssss, why'd you leave me!" She came running wailing. Weiss only let out a grumble as the girl dressed in red slammed into her. Jaune smiled at the interaction. It seemed that they were friends.

"Ahem. Pyrrha, this is Ruby Rose, a current member in our hunting team." Pyrrha and Ruby exchanged greetings while Jaune analyzed the girl. She was short. She had close to black hair with red highlights in between. Jaune could guess her age by the immaturity that she was showing. A young prodigy was the conclusion that he came with.

After Ruby, another girl joined their table. She had bright blonde hair, much like Jaune himself.

"Are you guys ready to start this year with a… Yang?" Weiss and Ruby groaned. Jaune didn't understand what just happened.

"Ruby! I expected you of all people to laugh at your sister's great pun!" The blonde haired girl playfully yelled at Ruby.

'Sisters?' Jaune thought. They looked really different from one another.

"Blake, my joke was funny right?" A familiar girl sat down at the table while nodding her head sideways. As she saw Jaune, they greeted each other with a small nod of the head.

The four girls seemed to be acquainted with each other. From Jaune's point of view, it seemed most likely that they were a hunting team. It was then that he understood the weird relation between Weiss and Blake. They naturally hated each other, considering their background. But their friends, the two sisters, brought the two together, and tried to work with one another, as they were in the same team.

It was a….. Interesting team dynamic to say the least.

* * *

"Jaune!" Pyrrha's voice entered his ears as he turned around. It was currently around 6 PM. They had promised to hunt earlier, and they were about to do just that.

"It's much darker, so there are likely to be more Grimm. Any plans?" Jaune asked Pyrrha. He wanted to acquaint himself with how Pyrrha thought.

"We're gonna aim for Ursas. At this time, they'll probably be grouped in numbers of three. We can try to separate them or fight them all at once." Jaune nodded.

The two of them headed out towards the forest to try and look for their objectives. Oddly, they couldn't find any Grimm around. Scratching his head, Jaune was about to ask Pyrrha a question when a loud voice entered his ears.

"NOORA! I TOLD YOU THIS WAS A BAD IDEA!"

"HAHAHA, SORRY REEEEENN!" By the time Jaune and Pyrrha turned their heads towards the direction of the voice, two bodies collided with them.

Jaune groand as he stood up. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with two things.

In front of him, he saw two strangers. Judging from the yells earlier, Jaune assumed that the female stranger was Nora, with the male being Ren.

Also in front of him, was a large Deathstalker. Somehow, the two people in front of Jaune managed to attract the attention of one.

Jaune started to think quickly. If he was by himself, he could manage to take it out. He didn't want to with others watching him.

'Take no chances' was what Qrow had told him, and Jaune planned not to take any. Jaune also knew that Pyrrha wouldn't ditch him. It just didn't match her personality. So Jaune did the one thing that seemed to be the best idea at the current situation.

Facing the two strangers he asked them a question,

"Team up?" The two people looked at each other before reaching an agreement. The two people now locked eyes with Jaune before replying.

"Team up."

 **So that ends chapter two in the series! I hope you guys had a good read!**

 **FalseOrdeals**


	3. Chapter 3 - Reunited

**Author's Note**

 **Hello again! This is the third chapter into the series!**

 **It's my first time trying to write action scenes and I hope that I did okay with it….**

 **Couple of things, although I did research to refresh my memory a bit, I'm not 100% confident on my accuracy with the RWBY verse. If there are things I want different, then most notably, I will explain the difference in the story or the AN. So for the upcoming Vytal Festival, it will be different for first years, but it will be explained in upcoming chapter.**

 **So if there are any mistakes, then I apologize.**

 **With that, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY is not owned by me in any way or form. Credit is due to its creators.**

* * *

Four bodies moved quickly across the forest clearing. Large earth shattering noises could be heard behind them as a even larger shadow chased them.

The group made a stop as they entered a open space. Turning around, Ren started to shoot bullets at the Deathstalker that was right on their heels.

When Jaune heard loud explosions, he looked around to see what was making the noise. Jaune's eyes widened when he saw the girl named Nora hold a grenade launcher. Looking around, Jaune soaked the information of his current teammates.

Ren seemed to use dual pistols that had blades attached to them. Nora had a freaking hammer that transformed into a grenade launcher, and Pyrrha had a shield and spear, which turned into a rifle.

Watching his teammates fight, he understood why Pyrrha would be famous. There was no wasted movements, and the accuracy of her weapon was almost perfect. She knew exactly when to switch from close-combat to ranged, and used her shield to the utmost efficiency. Jaune was sure she could give Qrow some difficulty…...

Noticing one of the Deathstalker's claws approaching Ren, Jaune jumped forward to intercept the blow with the shield. Although surprised, Ren immediately regained his composure and gave a slight nod of appreciation to Jaune.

Gritting his teeth from the shock of the blow, Jaune went and grouped back with the others. His blood was starting to boil from the excitement. Jaune could feel the dull headache that would always accompany him when his mysterious power was present. He needed to end the battle fast.

If only he knew more about Grimm. Jaune could adapt to opponents quickly, as Qrow beat into him the instinct of fighting. But that was all he learned about. How to fight, how to control. Jaune didn't learn anything about the Grimm.

Focusing back into the fight and pushing back the headache, he started forming a plan. It seemed that they needed to focus on specific parts of the Deathstalker. Their weapons hardly did damage to the hard shell of the Grimm. It was worthy of being 200 points.

"Ren, Pyrrha! Focus your fire on the stinger, it's the biggest threat!" Jaune yelled through the sounds of war. The group could handle blows from the claws, as long as they didn't get between them. They would only end with bruises. Getting impaled from the stinger on the other hand….

Jaune got rid of the thought.

"Nora, let's go distract it!" Nora gave an enthusiastic nod as she switched to her hammer and started pounding on the deathstalker. Jaune reminded himself for future reference to stay on her good side.

In the current phase of the battle, it was repeated with the same process of Jaune blocking most blows with his shield, with Nora helping to deflect the claws. Pyrrha and Ren continued to focus on the stinger. The group noticed immediately when the stinger seemed to be damaged.

Jaune was about to make his next order when suddenly, the stinger charged towards them. Jaune rushed to block it, when he heard Ren.

"I got it." It was said confidently, and Jaune moved aside to watch what exactly his current teammate would do.

What Jaune saw surprised him. The stinger seemed to stay still midair in front of Ren's hands. Although Jaune recognized that this was possible because of aura, it was still amazing. Very few people could manipulate aura the way that Ren was doing currently.

With haste, Jaune quickly ran to the stinger with his sword and slashed downwards onto it. Pyrrha followed suit and with a sickening noise of flesh ripping, Jaune saw that the Stinger was now dismembered from the tail.

What Jaune saw next surprised him even more. Ren still held the stinger midair with his aura. However, Ren flipped the stinger so that the sharp end was now facing towards the Deathstalker. Nora then ran forward with her hammer, swinging as hard as she could. An explosive sound followed through because of her hammer. The stinger impaled the Deathstalker straight in the head, and was accompanied with the noise of the hard shell being cracked.

Jaune reminded himself once again, to not be on Nora's bad side.

"Nice." It was the only comment Jaune could give at the moment. It was a very… interesting way to kill a Deathstalker. Putting a hand to his head, he tried to calm the steady waves of pain that came from the headache.

"You okay?" Ren's deep voice entered Jaune's ears. Turning to face him, Jaune gave a short nod.

"Yeah. Just tired from the random encounter with a Deathstalker. How did you guys get it's attention anyways?" He couldn't help but ask.

Ren put on a skeptical face that seemed to give the silent message 'Don't even ask'. So Jaune let the question slip. The group picked up the stinger of the Deathstalker as evidence to trade in for Hunter's Points. They didn't need to tell each other that they were done for the day. They all headed back towards the school.

Jaune was the last in line heading back as he thought about the event that had just transpired. The group was very, very capable. During the fight, Jaune only had the task of blocking.

It seemed like a good idea to keep in touch with Ren and Nora.

* * *

Jaune cried silent tears of joy as he saw how many points he had. It would last him about a week before he would have to go outside to hunt again.

He stretched his body as he finished eating his lunch. His body was slightly sore after the whole ordeal last night with the Deathstalker. He was about to clean up and return the plates when he heard other students talk.

"It's him the leecher."

"Can't believe they even gave him a share of the reward."

Words along these lines were continuing to enter Jaune's ears. Seriously, Jaune didn't know if they wanted him to hear it or not. They acted as if they were whispering, but the volume of their voices said otherwise. Why couldn't they just say it to his face?

He let out a loud sigh before turning away to finish cleaning. He then headed towards Professor Port's class to learn about Grimm.

He navigated through the classrooms as he continued to hear whispers about him 'leeching' off Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha. He just ignored them as he opened the door to enter Grimm class. He had about five minutes before class started, and looked to see where he could sit.

He was surprised to see that all four people of the dynamic group, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were in the class. It seemed that Pyrrha wasn't in the class, as Jaune was certain that she would already be in class if she was. He was happy to see that Nora and Ren were in the class.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Jaune had walked towards the two. He let out a sigh of relief as Ren and Nora both nodded. As he let his bag down and set himself down on his chair, he saw many heads turn towards him.

Shit.

He knew that the rumours of Jaune the Leech would be even more evident to other people now. If Nora and Ren had been the one to approach him, people would have doubts. Because it was the opposite, people would just do what they are best at. Assume and spread rumours. He felt the laser glare of Weiss on him. Seemed that she believed the rumours.

Jaune saw in the corner of his eyes concern in Ren and laughter in Nora's eyes as Jaune smashed his head against the table repeatedly in frustration. Ren gave Jaune a pat on the back.

Jaune was happy to see the professor enter. Jaune took out his notes and pencil, getting ready to take notes about the different types of Grimm they would have to fight.

It was apparent in yesterday that knowledge was a huge part in battle. Jaune had almost no knowledge about Grimm, and dumb luck had been a huge part in their victory against the Deathstalker. It had motivated Jaune to learn, and he wanted to do just that, learn.

30 minutes into the lecture, Jaune was confused.

'What the hell is going on? How the hell is this guy even a professor here at Beacon?' The lecture had started out okay. They were learning about the lesser Grimm, such as Beowolves, Boarbatusks, and Ursas. They had barely gotten into learning about the anatomy before the Professor starting speaking off about his so called heroic past.

Confusion visibly showing on his face, Jaune turned around to see what the other students in the class were doing.

Ren, in Jaune's amazement, was actually still listening to the 'lecture'.

Nora was sleeping.

Other students in the class had annoyance and confusion on their faces. Some students seemed to have just given up, as they were now doing other things.

Looking to Ruby's table, Jaune saw that Blake was reading a different book, a novel it seemed like. Weiss, just like Ren, was actually still listening to Professor Port, while actually taking notes on the small instances that the professor was talking about Grimm. Yang was laughing about something. Looking at Ruby, it seemed that Yang was laughing because of her.

Ruby was currently picking her nose while looking off into the distant space. Then, in the next instance, it seemed that she was sleeping. A beautiful transition now led Ruby into balancing an apple and a book on top of a pencil with her index finger. An impressive feat.

It was amazing how many activities Ruby was doing in a minute. Now having drawn the professor, she held up her piece of work for her sister to see. The drawing consisted of a rotund figure that actually portrayed their professor well. The drawing also had wavy lines that usually indicated smell. The caption of the drawing was, Professor Poop. Ruby let out a farting sound from her mouth. Yang snickered, and Jaune was having an inner monologue.

'I am mature, at the age of 18. Watching a girl pick her nose, or create an immature drawing is not amusing. I have learned to control my emotions through the vigourous training of Qrow. I will not-'

Fuck.

Jaune dropped his head down and started to laugh silently. It was cute, watching Ruby entertain her sister. Almost anything was more fun than hearing the professor talk about his past. Jaune swore that the professor was actually saying 'Blah Blah Blah' himself…..

Jaune guessed that he would have to study about Grimm by himself in the library.

The rest of the day had passed very quietly for Jaune, as in combat class, no one had picked him today. Although he still heard the rumours about him, it was something that barely bothered him now. Jaune was heading towards the dormitories. Ozpin had been nice enough to save a singular person room for Jaune. He entered his room and lied down straight onto his bed.

Looking onto his clock, he saw the date and time. It was now 10:36 pm, and the date now read the 22nd. Jaune swore that this date was important. He couldn't remember, and decided to just sleep early and forget about the annoying feeling he had in the back of his mind.

* * *

A loud ringing noise awoken Jaune from his slumber. Cursing, Jaune looked at the clock before he stopped the ringing sound.

2:50 am.

What. The. Fuck.

Deciding that he would murder the person that would dare call his scroll during his slumber, Jaune angrily found his scroll. He was about to accept the call and scream at the person before he saw the name of the person calling him.

Qrow.

Oh. Now he remembered. Qrow had left on some kind of covert mission couple of months before the schooling term had started. Qrow had contacted him a couple of weeks ago that he was going to come back on the 22nd due to a short vacation he was going to take after he had finished his mission.

Groaning, Jaune accepted the call.

"Finally answering now huh? Why didn't you answer the messages? More importantly, WHY AREN'T YOU HERE RIGHT NOW!?" The call ended after a one sided yelling, and Jaune looked at his scroll. Qrow had sent about 20 messages asking along the lines of:

I'm back.

I'm waiting at the underground training field.

Where the fuck are you.

Jaune quickly changed apparel and sprinted towards the training ground. He was so screwed tonight. Qrow was gonna have no mercy on him, and Jaune doubted that he would be able to move comfortably tomorrow at all.

Arriving to the training field that the two have used for the past many years, Jaune saw his mentor in the middle, drinking alcohol while muttering curses that were directed towards a certain 18 year old boy. Noticing the said boy enter, Qrow let out a hellish grin before dashing towards Jaune, sword out.

Taking out his own sword, Jaune quickly deflected the first blow before he crouched and sent out a sweeping kick towards the old Qrow.

"I saw that miles away!" Qrow yelled excitedly as he jumped. He flipped midair and sent his sword straight down, with the whole intentions of giving the boy under him pain. Jaune raised his sword up horizontally to intercept the blade, and grunted from the pressure Qrow exerted on his sword.

Qrow twisted his body after the slash and his foot made contact with Jaune's face. With his body flying to the side now, Jaune tried to recover his footing after rolling on the floor. Dizzy from the blow and drowsiness, Jaune slowly felt the headache, the dark power within him come forward.

Jaune felt the dark aura circle around himself. He focused on maintaining control, to make absolute certainty that he was the one in control. What allowed Jaune to maintain control was emotions that made him comfortable. Memories from the past with his family, when they actually cared for him, it was those that allowed Jaune to use the power. It always felt weird, the ominous, yet weirdly comforting feeling that surrounded him.

It felt ominous because Jaune could lose control any minute. Remembering how his family had disowned and betrayed him always made him lose control. But now was not one of those times.

Smiling, Jaune sped forward, leaving a dark trail in his wake. His heart was pumping blood hard now, and Jaune felt the adrenaline and anxiety that always accompanied him in a full, all-out battle.

Opposite of Jaune's reaction, Qrow now had a serious expression on his face. The damage that the boy could do was severe in this state, and a careless mistake could lead to a missing limb or more. It also reminded Qrow of his damaged pride when he almost lost due to the unexpected blow that Jaune inflicted when Qrow first made him angry. However, Qrow was sure he would win.

The boy had control over his power right now. If his student had lost himself completely to the power, then Qrow would be uncertain about the result. Changing his sword into his signature scythe, Qrow also charged forward to confront the the attack head-on.

* * *

Jaune was panting on the ground, feeling signals of pain all over his body. Qrow had clearly beaten him, and Jaune was sure his body would have bruises by the morning. He hated and loved the fights he had with Qrow. Although he loved the aspect that he was able to let loose, he hated the fact that Qrow would always win.

Qrow always toyed with him in the beginning, When Jaune tried to fight using only his swordsmanship and aura. Then, Qrow would always go all-out serious when Jaune unleashed the dark power. Whenever Jaune had control, Qrow would be able to defeat Jaune, using the experience and skill in his arsenal to outmaneuver Jaune.

"I told you, the first time you got lucky. I wasn't expecting the hugeass shockwave you sent towards me." Qrow was looking smug now, clearly enjoying his victory. Jaune was about to retort when Qrow continued first.

"I was gonna wait till tomorrow to meet. Meet then make small talk about life. Then I hear the news and I had to make sure you had the chance to vent. I hope you're okay now." Qrow had a sincere expression on his face as he asked.

Jaune just had a confused face. He didn't have a single clue about what Qrow was talking about. There was nothing big on the news for Vale, other than the upcoming Vytal Festival. So what was his mentor talking about?

Noticing the confused expression on Jaune's face, Qrow started to get confused himself. Then he realized the reason why Jaune didn't know. Qrow started to mutter to himself.

"Guess Vale wouldn't know about it. Beacon still doesn't know the representative speaker. Although he made the announcement at Atlas Academy today. Well then, guess this spar was for nothing then!" Qrow let out a chuckle. Then his face turned serious as he faced Jaune.

"Keep up with the news the next couple of days Jaune." Jaune's eyes widened. Qrow only called him Jaune in serious occasions. Usually his name was replaced with Boy or you.

"And if you do need to vent, just contact me. Well, I'm also tired from the fight, so I'm gonna retire the night." Qrow left the training grounds, waving at Jaune as he left.

Confusion was evident on Jaune's eyes as he stared at the retreating figure of his mentor. He wondered what the hell Qrow was talking about. Looking at his scroll, it seemed that he would only get a few hours of sleep tonight.

Jaune left the training facility and and tried to sleep the few precious hours he had left before he would have to wake up.

* * *

Jaune was amazed with the speed that Nora ate the breakfast pancakes. It was like watching a paper shredder. It seemed like a regular routine to Ren, as he didn't even spare a glance at her. It was the following morning and Jaune was right. His body hurt like hell from the spar with Qrow.

He looked around at his table and was happy that Ren and Nora now sat with his….. Friends? No, Ruby and the others, he barely knew them. Hell, he barely even knew Pyrrha. He fought together with her, but he never had talks about personal life with her. He spent the next words contemplating about what to call them before he settled on the word comrades. Yes, the seven others sitting at the table with him were comrades. He blanched at the word after thinking for a moment. He didn't think he could call Ruby, Weiss, Blake, or Yang comrades.

He quickly disregarded the thought and looked at the individuals at the table.

Jaune was thankful for even having people sit at the table with him. He was afraid that he would go through the years as a loner. He wanted friends, even if he had to keep a secret to them. Even if Jaune knew that Ruby's group sat with them because of Weiss's obvious intentions about becoming acquainted with Pyrrha, he was still thankful.

Loud noises from the student body interrupted Jaune's thoughts as he wondered what they were talking about. Following their glances, he noticed that they were staring at the TV.

"Wonder what the whole ruckus is about." Jaune said as his 'comrades' looked up. It was probably about the Vytal Festival, but Jaune looked just in case. It was just yesterday that Qrow had told him to keep up on the news.

No.

No way.

He felt his breathing become uneven as he saw what the noise from the student body was about. His eyes locked with the news captions. His eyes then focused on the face and voice of the talking person.

"Although there should be separate representatives wishing their kingdoms blessings on the upcoming Vytal Festival, I am honored that all the kingdoms wanted a single person to wish the blessings on the academies. I hope that the staff and students of Atlas Academy have felt the sincerity of my blessings for their success. I am honored to head towards Beacon Academy in Vale next."

Jaune didn't give a single shit about what the person was talking about. All he could see was the caption that was under the video, and the face of the speaker.

"Silvanus Arc to be representative for all kingdoms in upcoming Vytal Festival. Silvanus will be present at Beacon Academy tomorrow."

It was his third oldest sibling out of the eight, no, seven. Silvanus stood with his chest out, with the familiar arrogant smirk that always seemed to stick on his face. During Jaune's short stay with his bloodline family, he remembered Silvanus to be the one who treasured the Arc name the most. He would always incessantly remind others outside that he was an Arc, relishing in the way that others would look up to him just because of the Arc name.

At first, Silvanus had loved Jaune dearly. Just because he treasured the Arc name, he treasured others with the Arc name. That included Jaune until he was disowned. The smiles that Silvanus gave him quickly turned into a hateful scowls. Jaune could still remember the face of Silvanus when Jaune was forced to leave on that night.

Silvanus's love had been fake, and Jaune's blood boiled as he thought that about how Silvanus valued a fucking last name more than a sibling.

Jaune looked around the student body as he slowly became disgusted. Student's were gushing over Silvanus, talking about how they were already blessed just being able to see him in person. The Arc name was idolized, and Silvanus was enjoying the attention and fame that he was getting. It seemed that the Arc family sent him out on purpose, because of his personality.

Jaune felt his fists clench at the reaction of the students. They see someone who was head above heels above them, and they treat him like a god. Then they see someone below them, in this case himself, then they immediately flock to humiliate, in order to make themselves feel better.

It wasn't until Ren was slowly shaking him that Jaune realized that he was trying to get Jaune's attention.

"Sorry, you were talking to me?" Jaune asked. Looking at the seven others at the table, he noticed that they were staring at him. Most of them had concern and confusion in their eyes. Looking at Blake and Ren, they had something else. It seemed that both of them were trying to question why he was acting as he was.

Jaune noted to act extra careful around Blake and Ren.

"Sorry, it's just that someone like me, it's jealousy, you know? An Arc just seems destined for success and fame while I'm here just flailing about. I hate it." It seemed that the others seemed to buy the lie. Blake was slowly nodding, as if she was contemplating whether to believe it or not. It was logical and reasonable, so she decided to stick with the reason for now. Ren was having the same reaction.

"It's extremely inappropriate that you would hate because of those reasons. It's even disgusting that you would unjustly hate an esteemed family like the Arcs just because of their name." Weiss spoke out while narrowing her eyes at Jaune.

If Jaune was able to calm down just a little, all the anger flared up again at her words. Without thinking, Jaune retorted back.

"I wonder why you're not disgusted with yourself then. I'd understand if you hated some Faunus, but it seemed quite evident that you 'unjustly' hate all Faunus, just because of their kind Weiss. What a fucking hypocrite." Weiss's eyes widened at the retort before returning to their narrowed state.

"The White Fang have caused huge problems for the Schnee family. They have killed employees, have stolen goods, and have sent death threats continually to us. I do admit that it is… wrong to hate all Faunus because of the White Fang." she admitted begrudgingly before continuing. "But I do have a reason to justify my hate unlike you. Have the Arc family committed some crime towards you? Have they done some injustice? I doubt the Arc family would even spare a second to a talentless failure such as you Jaune!" She was raising her voice, now coming to a full yell as she ended her rant.

What the fuck did she know. She didn't know anything about the Arcs, and here was the esteemed Schnee, acting as if she knew the Arc family her whole life. Acting as if she knew his character.

Now the entire dining hall was staring at their table.

Jaune saw Ruby and the others just staring, wide-eyed at the two. The atmosphere was extremely uncomfortable, and Jaune turned to leave.

If Jaune didn't have any doubts to call Ruby and the others comrades before, then he surely did now.

Jaune couldn't stand the attention and decided to head back towards his room. He decided to skip all his classes and just spend the day off. He slammed the door to his dorm shut and lied down on his bed. He contemplated calling Qrow to vent with a fight.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. It was so obvious that he would be the cause of the problems to the others. By tomorrow, he was sure that other students would call him out for starting to argue with Weiss Fucking Schnee. Feeling a headache coming from the events, Jaune started to slowly punch the wall repeatedly.

Hearing a knock at the door, Jaune turned around to open the door. He just didn't give a flying fuck about hiding his abilities right now. He was gonna destroy whoever came for a fight. He was gonna slowly crush their organs and bones and laugh while doi-

Oh. It was Headmaster Ozpin standing in front of him.

Jaune quickly tried to calm down his pounding heart. As he did so, his violent thoughts also receded. It seemed that excitement from battle, or pure anger caused the power to come forth.

Ozpin gave Jaune an interested look as he saw the fist that was stopped in front of him. Ozpin just slowly took a sip of his coffee as he moved inside Jaune's room, closing the door as he did. Jaune awkwardly looked at the headmaster.

"I had to come after I heard the news about Silvanus Arc coming to Beacon. I didn't know until this morning after accepting a scroll message from Qrow. It seemed that Silvanus just did things as he pleased. After speaking with the other headmasters, they didn't know Silvanus was being the representative either." Jaune snorted. It was so like his brother to do that.

"I came to talk about what you wanted to do while Silvanus makes his blessings. Are you just going to stay inside your room? Or should I organize a flight for you to go to Downtown Vale?" Jaune contemplated the thought before giving his answer.

"I'd prefer to just stay inside. There are still classes after his speech, right? I don't want to avoid school grounds for the whole day just because he's gonna give an hour speech then leave." Ozpin nodded and as he stood up to leave, he turned back.

"It's very selfish of me to ask Jaune, but, could you handle your current situation longer? I understand that my decision has put you in a very less than desirable spot. If you choose to stop, I will put an end to it. I will make sure you graduate in special terms. It's just that I want you to learn to interact with others. I've known first hand that you have and had barely interacted with people of your age." Jaune let out a sigh.

He knew Ozpin was putting him through this for a greater gain. It was true. Even when he was in the Arc family, he only played with his siblings. The only times he spoke with others was when he needed to do grocery shopping or other minor activities. That was maybe why he wanted so desperately to be friends with Pyrrha and the others.

"No. I'll put up with it. I can normally handle my emotions well. It's just that, when it comes to my past family, I lose it so easily. I know you're doing this for me." Ozpin let out a sigh of relief. He gave a small gesture as he left the room.

Lying back on the bed, Jaune let out another sigh as he contemplated his next actions. To ignore and continue hating Weiss, or apologize to the pros and cons, Jaune decided that apologizing was better. He hated his side that wanted friends. To have an opportunity that he never had. Now, all he had to do was think about how to apologize to the Schnee.

He looked at the time and noticed that he still had some time before classes started. Taking out his scroll, and looking at the student directory, he found Weiss's scroll contact and sent a message to meet at a empty lecture hall.

Not waiting or even looking at his scroll for a reply, he headed towards the said location.

As he arrived to the location, he headed inside to organize his thoughts. He started to plan his apology. Jaune decided that just a concise and quick apology of admitting his faults would please the Schnee. Now the problem was whether she would come or not…..

A few minutes passed before he heard the door open. Jaune jumped from the sound before he noticed that he was actually nervous. Coming to think of it, it was his first time apologizing to someone. He saw Weiss glaring at him. He noticed that her mouth started to move, so before she could start speaking, he started first.

"I'm sorry." Weiss's mouth closed and opened a couple of times as her eyes slightly widened at the sudden apology. Jaune continued.

"After thinking about it, I realized that you were right, I was being immature. To hate someone just because I'm jealous of their talents and abilities is completely wrong. I'm also sorry for rudely speaking about you being a hypocrite. It's just that I'm not exactly liked by the student body and hearing you say that I'm a nobody was slightly infuriating." He finished.

Seconds seemed like minutes as Weiss just stood there staring at Jaune. He didn't know what was going on in her head as she kept a stoic face. She finally spoke.

"Apology accepted. I hope you're more careful next time." With that said, she left, leaving Jaune alone in the room. It seemed that she wasn't going to apologize to him. Why would she? Technically, she was right, he was a nobody. But it was fine. She accepted her apology, that was enough for him.

Jaune headed towards the door and changed his mind about skipping classes. He headed towards history class, feeling a little lighter. But as the day passed, that light feeling turned heavier as it meant that tomorrow, his brother would be arriving.

* * *

Jaune stayed in his room with everything prepared. He had take-out breakfast in one hand with his scroll out on the other. Silvanus's speech should be about halfway done now. Jaune continued to watch videos on his scroll to pass the time while eating his late breakfast.

His heart was pounding for some reason. Maybe it was the uncomfortable feeling that maybe, just maybe his brother knew he was here. But that feeling slowly disappeared as time passed. The feeling completely disappeared when Headmaster Ozpin sent a message to Jaune.

'He's done with his speech, you can go to class.' Letting out a sigh of relief, Jaune started to head out. Today's schedule started with combat class, so Jaune headed towards Professor Glynda's class. He was very early to class, due to not having the traffic from leaving the assembly hall. Students arrived and Jaune was surprised when someone tapped his shoulder. It was Pyrrha.

"Hi!" It sounded too forced, even for her.

"I was wondering if you were okay after…. yesterday. I was wondering if I should send you a message, but I figured you would want some privacy to think things out." Jaune just gave her a small smile.

"Well, that was the right decision. Don't worry about it, I made up with Weiss." Pyrrha gave an approving nod.

Glynda had arrived into the classroom. Just as she was about to speak, Jaune felt his scroll vibrate. Wondering what was the message, he covertly took out his scroll and saw a message from Ozpin that made him scrunch his eyes in confusion.

'Leave Glynda's class now.'

Albeit confused, Jaune didn't question the headmaster's order. He stood up and mouthed the word 'bathroom' to Pyrrha. As he was about to get Glynda's permission to leave, the door opened. The whole class turned their heads to look at the intrusion to the class.

When Jaune saw Silvanus walk into the classroom, he quickly sat down and put on his hood. He scrunched his body, trying to make it visibly harder to see him. He felt his heart race. Why the hell was Silvanus here in class? Wasn't he suppose to leave after the assembly?

Pyrrha was looking at Jaune with a worried look in her eyes. Why was he acting so strange suddenly? She was about to ask him when she saw the look in Jaune's face. It was a face that pleaded her to stay silent. So she abided. She would question him later.

Glynda's voice rang out from the class.

"If you would mind me asking, why are you currently here in the classroom, Mr. Arc?" Silvanus glanced around the classroom before meeting the professor's eyes.

"Keep this a secret professor, but I do favor Vale out of the four kingdoms. Afterall, it's where our home is located." He said with a slick smile on his face.

"It's just that, I wanted to see my hometown's future huntsman and huntresses. So if you may allow it, I wanted to see the abilities of our future prospects." His voice rang out into the ears of the students. Sounds of whispering could be heard as the students wanted to appeal to the Arc.

"Very well, I will start the roulette to see who will choose their opponent." Glynda said.

"No." Silvanus suddenly interrupted. Glynda had a raised eyebrow as she slowly felt anger built up. Silvanus continued.

"I see that the Schnee daughter is here with us. I want to see her abilities." Weiss stood up as she was shocked from the words that Silvanus had said.

Jaune felt slightly relieved. It seemed that it was just misfortune that caused Silvanus to come inside the classroom. He would just stay silent. He was sure Weiss wouldn't choose him as a sparring partner. She didn't pick on the weak. He was temporarily sa-

"Mr. Arc, if I may have the chance of showing you my abilities?" A deep familiar voice came from the crowd. Stepping from the crowd was Cardin Winchester.

Silvanus laughed when he saw Cardin.

"We had a Winchester family member in the crowd! I apologize for not seeing you earlier. Well then, I apologize Ms. Schnee, but I politely ask for you to step down. I assume you already have spectacular abilities, so I hope it is alright to let a lesser family have a chance." Silvanus gave an exaggerated bow towards Weiss. This seemed to appease her.

"Well, for my opponent, I choose Jaune." Cardin said.

Shit. Fucking little piece of shit.

Jaune stayed still. Of course Cardin chose him. He was an easy picking, and it was obvious that Cardin was trying to do a couple of things. He wanted to make himself look better in front of Silvanus, and he wanted Silvanus to see how bad Jaune was.

Jaune dared to even tilt his face slightly to face towards Silvanus. Silvanus's face had an interested look as he heard the name Jaune. Surely, it couldn't be the disowned worthless boy who tainted the Arc name? It wasn't possible. Jaune had no potential to even get into Beacon Academy.

"Perhaps you would choose someone different Cardin? You have fought him before after all." Glynda tried to coerce Cardin. But Cardin didn't want to change his opponent.

"Professor, You know how much trouble Jaune is having keeping up with us, I just want to help him, I said this last time. Now Jaune, get up here." Cardin was now staring at Jaune's hunched figure as finished speaking.

Curious, Silvanus followed Cardin's line of sight to see a boy covered in a hoodie. The figure stood up and made his way into the arena.

Jaune cursed Cardin. He took out his sword and shield while facing away from Silvanus as much as he could. With the corner of his eyes, he glanced for a split second towards Silvanus. Jaune froze when he saw Silvanus's face.

Silvanus's eyes were in complete slits now, and had now made eye contact with Jaune's eyes.

* * *

 **That concludes chapter three of the series, thank you for reading!**

 **FalseOrdeals**


	4. Chapter 4 - Silvanus

**Author's Note**

 **So, my family is planning a trip sometime in mid to late August, before we all go back to college and become slaves to the damned thing called reality. Because we didn't decide an exact date or anything, I decided to focus on just finishing this chapter for like, the past five days.**

 **I realized that with my pace of writing and grinding out ideas, it would conflict with the vacation and start of next semester. Meaning, that it would take a fucking long time in finishing.**

 **I'm the type of person that takes FUCKING FOREVER to be satisfied with an idea. I write, erase, write, erase, undo, erase, then write, until I feel satisfied. In all honesty, I was satisfied with the way that this chapter ended out, given how much I over paced myself.**

 **So I apologize if it seems rushed.**

 **On a quick note, Beacon is more like a college-type education system. Because fuck you Jaune, I want you to feel the pain of college too.**

 **With that, Enjoy chapter 4!**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY is not owned by me in any way or form. Credit is due to its creators.**

* * *

Jaune could only breathe deep breaths while gulping down saliva from his own nervousness. Although he had snapped his eyes right back towards Cardin after locking eyes with Silvanus, Jaune couldn't help but have the temptation to look at Silvanus.

Focusing his vision back into the simulation arena, Jaune saw Glynda looking at him worriedly. Jaune only gave her a reassuring nod. Although Glynda spoke the words that would begin the fight in a regular pace, it felt so slow for Jaune.

It was because Jaune was having millions of thoughts.

Ordinarily, Jaune would have no thoughts about how he would act this fight. He would lose, in the most pitiful way possible. Now that Silvanus was here, things changed. Looking at the way that his brother had already done random acts, combined with the way that Silvanus looked at him, Jaune couldn't help but think that something would happen if he lost in such a poor manner.

Then would he win the fight? Then the whole point of what he did until now was wasted. How about making the win seem like luck then? He was sure that the student body would label his victory as luck as long as he didn't get repeated victories. But Jaune didn't care about the student body. He cared about Silvanus. Would he be able to fool Silvanus with a 'lucky' shot?

His thoughts were cut short as Jaune realized that Cardin was charging towards him with his mace held high. Time was short, Jaune had to make a decision quickly with what to do with the fight. He decided to win. To make it appear as luck. He would embarrass Cardin this time, for making him stand out, for always treating him like shit. It was the golden opportunity. Jaune doubted that he could escape hiding his identity from Silvanus anyways.

Raising his shield, Jaune blocked the mace that Cardin had swung. After successfully blocking, Jaune had started to swing his sword. Cardin's face showed surprise at this action. Never had Jaune been on the offensive in a fight before in Combat Class. Cardin let a smile show on his face. He was gonna put trash where trash belonged.

Deflecting and stopping Jaune's sword midway, Cardin let out a victory cry as he slammed his mace down towards Jaune's defenseless body. His victory cry transformed into a confused grunt when his mace hit the ground instead of Jaune's body.

Jaune had tripped over his own feet. That was what it seemed like to the other students. So when Jaune had dodged the mace and attacked Cardin's exposed back, the students could only stare in shock. Jaune had managed to not only dodge Cardin, but also inflict damage. Looking at the aura levels, Cardin's had dropped to the red. Jaune had won.

Confused cries echoed in the room. Students were discussing with themselves on how Jaune had managed to drop Cardin's aura that much with only one blow. Jaune knew why. He had mismanaged his strength. He meant to only inflict small to mediocre damage. But when he remembered all the shit Cardin put him through, he couldn't help but let his attack be 'slightly' stronger than intended.

'Wh-w-what?" Jaune almost let out a sadistic laugh as he heard Cardin let out a strangled voice. Jaune, albeit not the way he intended it, had succeeded in his goal of humiliating Cardin.

It was getting harder to mask his smile as Cardin turned his head towards Silvanus and the others in the class. His pride as a Winchester had been spoiled, in front of Silvanus Arc no less. He had to amend this right now. He had to make sure that others wouldn't look down on him for this.

"It was luck, dumb luck! That idiot tripped on his own feet, which allowed that miraculous dodge to happen!" Cardin yelled at the students. The other students were slowly recovering the shock and remembering the events of the fight. It was true. Jaune had seemed to trip on his own footwork. It was dumb luck. It had to be. There was no way Jaune could beat Cardin otherwise. Before they could voice their thoughts, Silvanus had spoken first.

"It's disgraceful to see a Winchester act in such manner. What were those words you used in describing your opponent? Ah! Someone in need of help. It seems that I have overestimated the abilities of a Winchester." Cardin could only let out uninterpretable sounds.

"I hope to forget today's incident as soon as possible. I hope that the Schnee would not disappoint me as so." Weiss stood up after hearing these words. She immediately understood what Silvanus meant with those words. He expected her to win.

"That was a very entertaining victory. It was like watching a circus act. Thank you for the entertainment, Jaune." Jaune froze after hearing Silvanus's voice. Silvanus knew who he was. Jaune was sure of it from the way that Silvanus said his name. Slowly turning his head towards Silvanus, he saw a menacing smile on Silvanus's face.

Shit.

Weiss was on the stage now, and Jaune had no choice but to go sit back down on his chair. Pyrrha was giving him a pat on the back for his victory, but Jaune didn't even notice. That was how the rest of the class went. He didn't take notice about who won, or what Silvanus was saying any more. He only thought about what would happen from now on.

Jaune was still trapped in his thoughts when he noticed that people were standing up to leave. Combat Class had ended and people were heading towards lunch now. Jaune sat still in his chair until everyone else had left. Silvanus was sitting in his chair, just like Jaune. When Silvanus heard Jaune's footsteps approach him, he put a smile on his face.

Jaune only scowled. Silvanus knew that Jaune would approach him. Still, Jaune felt a small sense of security from Silvanus's actions. Silvanus had not exposed Jaune of his past in front of everyone. It seemed that Silvanus had understood that Jaune was an outcast, someone who was weak compared to the other students. Revealing Jaune as an Arc would dirty the Arc name. So it made sense that Silvanus would keep quiet about it.

The problem was whether Silvanus would tell the other Arcs. And if he did, what they would do. The problem was that Jaune didn't want the others to know that he was in Beacon. Ever since he was disowned, he had decided that he would get revenge on the Arcs. So if they knew that he was in a prestigious combat school, then the Arcs could possibly get cautious.

Jaune planned to make Silvanus keep his mouth shut.

"What does my brot-" Silvanus cut his own words and had a thoughtful look on his face. It seemed that he reached a satisfactory conclusion as he resumed his speech.

"I was wondering what I would call you. This thought never passed my mind. I thought I'd never see you again after you were disowned. Brother is crossed out as you're obviously not an Arc anymore. I'd call you Jaune, but that makes me feel the same as calling you brother. So I won't call you Jaune. I'll settle with whatever your last name is now." Silvanus had a mischievous grin on his face.

"Crocea." Jaune's voice came out as hoarse. Silvanus's eyes lit up in understanding the moment he heard the name.

"Our ancestor's weapon! I normally would appreciate your naming sense. However, do you deserve to name yourself with anything that is related to us?" Silvanus's voice was now cold, and the air was suddenly filled with tension.

Jaune's heart was beating like crazy again. His anger flared up after registering Silvanus's words.

"Meet me in the underground arena at midnight. Ask Ozpin where it is if you don't know." It was Jaune's ultimatum. He was sure that Silvanus wouldn't back out of a fight.

"We're gonna have a bet with this fight. I already know what my condition is going to be when I win. So prepare yours in the meantime." Leaving those lines behind, Jaune quickly left the classroom and headed someplace other than the classroom.

Right as he left the classroom and rounded a corner, he put his back against the wall and was taking desperate gulps of air. He pounded his chest over and over again, hoping that the futile action would calm his wild heart. He put a hand against his head, trying to calm the pounding in his head. Jaune was drenched in sweat, so he decided to head to the bathroom to wash his face.

Jaune didn't know how much time had passed since of his short panic attack, but he now felt somewhat calm. It was then that Jaune realized how hungry he was. With a grunt, Jaune left the bathroom and headed towards the dining hall.

Upon arrival, he saw that many of the students had already left. Looking at the time, Jaune realized that lunch was almost over. He would have to eat quickly. Jaune quickly purchased lunch, making a note to head out to hunt some Grimm soon.

When he searched around the dining hall for a comfortable seat, preferably a corner spot, something caught his eye. It was Pyrrha waving at him. Was she waiting the whole time for him? Why? Then it hit him. He had told her during class that he would explain his actions for hiding from Silvanus. He felt another wave of nervousness as he quickly tried to form a well planned lie.

He arrived at the table, and put his tray filled with food down. He ate as quickly as possible, shoving food down his throat. He didn't have the time to enjoy the meal, it was almost time for next class.

At least, that was the plan. But feeling Pyrrha's intense glare stopped him from eating.

Jaune looked up and shivered from Pyrrha's face. It wasn't angry. It was a more patient look. However, the lack of emotion displayed on the face, paired with the slightly raised questioning eyebrows made it seem like she was an interrogator. He could tell that she wanted answers.

Distracted from her stare, Jaune accidentally tried to breathe and swallow food at the same time, resulting in a very loud coughing fit. After repeated coughs, Jaune finally caught his breath. He frowned slightly at the aspect of not being able to finish lunch. But there were much more important things that he needed to do. He locked eyes with Pyrrha before opening his mouth to speak.

"Silvanus isn't exactly what the public makes him out to be." Jaune started cautiously. Pyrrha slowly nodded her head as she listened to Jaune's words.

"He may seem to act as some kind of savior for the weak, and only cruel to those he has expectations for. In truth, he despises the weak. He sees them as nothing but pebbles on a road, or as insects in the middle of a forest. But he understands that the weak need to exist in order to maintain balance. So he chose to show a false personality to the weak. I'd be really grateful if you don't ask for details, but I was someone who was affected by Silvanus's true side. Let's just say that my life changed from there." Jaune finished.

He didn't lie. He just didn't reveal anything, making a vague statement. Jaune believed that Pyrrha would be able to respect his decision, and wouldn't pry for details.

"It did always surprise me how people always just blindly idolize him." It was the only comment that Pyrrha gave after listening to Jaune. Jaune stood up to go and return the tray. As he was about to go, he turned his head around to face Pyrrha.

"Hey Pyrrha, thanks for caring for me. Is it alright if I considered you…. a friend?" Jaune carefully asked. Pyrrha only let a smile show on her face.

"Of course."

* * *

"51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 11:10. 1, 2, 3, 4" Jaune was counting out loud the seconds of the time. He had about thirty minutes before he would head out to fight Silvanus. He was nervous. So damn nervous. He had alerted Qrow and Ozpin of his actions a while ago.

Qrow had responded with curses and insults.

"Why the FUCK would you even do that? Jaune, do you even think you can win against him? I'm not sure if I would even win against that monster!" Jaune swore that his he was deft on his right ear now. Qrow's love filled words continued to tear apart his eardrums for almost 20 minutes.

Ozpin in the other hand, just responded quietly. He asked Jaune if this was what he wanted. When Jaune replied with 'yes' Ozpin only nodded. Then their conversation ended.

When he reflected upon Qrow's words, he realized just how stupid his action was. He challenged an Arc. A genuine Arc that was born with the potential and power that succeeded both the predecessors and the legacy of the Arcs.

It was too late to back out. He had already issued the challenge, and if he backed now, then it would seem as if he was admitting his weakness. Admitting that the choice that his father made was right.

He continued with these thoughts until it was finally time to go.

Jaune took deep breaths and headed outside towards the underground arena. Due to his nervousness and focus on the upcoming battle, Jaune didn't notice the other student that was out wandering the halls.

Pyrrha was up all afternoon and night thinking about the words Jaune said about Silvanus had affected his entire life in some way. She wondered why Jaune lied to the others during the other day. Why Jaune had told everyone that he was just jealous of the Arc's power. She knew he was hiding something during that time, and it still felt like he was hiding something.

Pyrrha was heading towards the training field to vent and organize her thoughts when she noticed Jaune walking. She was about to greet him when she noticed his face. It was filled with anxiety. It felt to Pyrrha that Jaune had a destination, and wasn't walking aimlessly around. She decided to follow him in stealth.

Normally, she would never have thoughts of following someone in secret. Pyrrha hated it when she found out about something she wasn't supposed to. But with Jaune, she felt conflicted. From day one when the semester started, Jaune was the focus of the other students. They had ridiculed him, laughed at his failures.

Pyrrha felt that Jaune needed someone to speak to, someone to let his true emotions show. Pyrrha herself was someone who knew the pain of concealing emotions. In her face, she only allowed smiles to show. She had to appear confident in front of other people, as that was what they expected of her. Four year champion of Mistral Regional Tournament. Prodigy in battle.

Automatically, people associated her with power, strength, invincibility. Ridiculous titles and ideals that others had forcefully planted in her image.

Because of this, Pyrrha had hidden her true self to live up to other people's expectations. What others didn't know, was the pain, the pressure that associated with this. While Pyrrha was pressured to be successful, Jaune was pressured to be a failure.

So Pyrrha would help him. Even if her current actions went against her own ideals, she would follow through in order to help Jaune.

This was what friends did, right?

She quickly ended her line of thoughts when she saw Jaune meet Ozpin. Her brows furrowed in confusion. Ozpin rarely met with students individually. She quickly deduced possible reasons as to why Ozpin would meet with Jaune at this time.

She reached the conclusion that Ozpin knew why Jaune acted the way he did towards Silvanus. The question was, could she hide her presence in front of Ozpin? Taking a nervous breath, she followed the two and tried to hide her presence even more, if it was possible.

Ozpin only smiled as he led Jaune towards the hidden arena. It seemed that someone cared for Jaune other than him and Qrow. He thought about turning around to make their follower leave, but decided against it. Pyrrha Nikos was one who was very mature, even for her age group. She was someone who could be trusted.

Also, this was what Jaune wanted, and something that could possibly help fix Jaune's problem with his past. Friends. It was difficult to make friends while hiding secrets as big as Jaune's, So perhaps, having one such as Nikos know was a gift, a blessing.

The two, no three of them arrived at the entrance of the hidden arena. They entered the arena and headed down the stairs that would lead downstairs. Pyrrha could only widen her eyes in shock at the realization of a hidden area.

Her suspicions were not answered, but rather increased. Why did Jaune out of all the students know about this hidden location. Why was Ozpin fine with Jaune knowing? Her nervousness increased, and continued to pursuit the two.

Arriving to the bottom of the stairs, she was surprised by how large the arena was. Arena was a misrepresentation of the size of the place. It was more of a coliseum. Pillars with intricate designs were lined up, with the main field having grains of sand everywhere. She quickly hided behind one of the massive pillars as her eyes widened more at the sight that befell her.

Jaune and Ozpin had met up with Qrow that was waiting for their arrival. Jaune scrunched his face as the odor of alcohol hit his nose. Qrow had given Ozpin a questioning face. He noticed a unwanted stranger enter the hidden area. Ozpin wouldn't let the person enter without reason. Ozpin only gave a smile for a response.

Grunting, Qrow quickly patted Jaune in the back. When Jaune looked up at Qrow he was surprised to see worry on his face.

"If only I could take a picture of your face right now." Jaune let a small snicker out as Qrow's face turned into a glare. All of his humor currently was false, to try and mask the anxiety and fear that etched his heart.

Turning his head towards the main field, he saw Silvanus waiting with a smile on his face. Jaune closed his eyes as he slowly made his way into the field. He could hear every beat that his heart made, he felt as if time had slowed down.

Arriving at the main field, and standing across Silvanus, Jaune started to speak.

"Not a single word of my existence in Beacon shall be spoken to anyone. Not a single word of my past shall be spoken to anyone. That is my condition for you to keep if I win." Silvanus seemed to have expected the condition as he started to speak.

"I don't have any conditions for you to keep if I win. I don't need anything from you." Silvanus's arrogant smirk was back onto his face. Qrow started to walk into the field to signal the fight to begin.

Jaune thought of a strategy during this time.

In terms of knowledge, Jaune had an advantage. He knew of Silvanus's weapon choice, his semblance, and the way he fought from when they were young. Of course, all of this was useless if he had changed over the years. In contrary, Silvanus only knew of Jaune's weapon choice from Combat Class.

Second, it was highly likely that Silvanus would underestimate Jaune. Would Silvanus let his guard down for a reason like that? That was the question.

"I'm aiming to kill you." Jaune didn't even know himself that the words slipped from his own mouth.

Silvanus seemed surprised, as his mouth was parted slightly. The surprised look was quickly changed with a smile.

"Of course, that's what I expect."

Those were the last words spoken between the two as Qrow signalled the fight to begin.

Silvanus had taken out his double bladed katana. He whirled his weapon around with masterful expertise in one hand before he sprinted towards Jaune, making a short exchange of blows.

Silvanus seemed to be enjoying the battle. Jaune only furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. He wanted his brother to feel pain, to feel fear as he did when he was left for dead. So when Jaune felt the black aura start to come forth, he let it. He didn't try to control it.

Feeling the familiar burst of strength, Jaune tried to make the most out of the element of surprise. He used his burst of speed to appear behind Silvanus and swung his sword with the aim of killing Silvanus.

The sound of flesh and clothing ripping could be heard as first blood was drawn. A cry of anger was followed suit as Silvanus felt pain resonate within his back. He was confused. How had Jaune gotten so much agility suddenly? How had his pathetic brother manage to cut through his aura? Most importantly, what the fuck was that black aura?

He had never seen such aura, and was confident that no other Arc had seen it either. It didn't matter, he was an Arc. There was no way that he would lose against Jaune. There were no more traces of the arrogant smirk. Instead, a face devoid of emotion was shown of Silvanus now.

The trash had crossed the line. Silvanus decided he would leave Jaune bloodied on the ground. Jaune made a frustrated face. He couldn't win with the strike. His element of surprise was now gone. It was expected of Silvanus to survive. Still, Jaune had hoped that he would win with that attack.

Jaune let out a surprised noise as he quickly put his shield in front of him. Silvanus had recovered from the attack with miraculous speed and went on the offensive. Even after training with Qrow for so long, the attacks of Silvanus were barely blocked. The speed and offensive abilities in every single blow were made to harm.

Sweat drenched his body as he kept up pace with Silvanus. Frustration was shown in both Jaune's and Silvanus's face. Silvanus was angered that Jaune was managing to block all of his attacks. Jaune was angered that all he could do was block. It took all of his focus.

Knowing that he would lose with the current pace, Jaune had decided to take a risk. Instead of blocking with his shield, he decided to parry the next set of attacks with his sword. Taking a step forward after his successful parry, Jaune attempted to bash Silvanus with his shield.

Silvanus evaded the blow and backed off into the clearing. Pure fury was visibly showing now. Silvanus had originally planned to defeat Jaune without dual-wielding or using his semblance. He had planned to completely wipe the floor using only swordsmanship. He had to admit, Jaune's ability with a basic sword was much better than his.

Jaune felt his breath quicken as he felt Silvanus's aura thicken. Silvanus had splitted his double bladed katana into two separate katanas now.

This was where the real fight started.

In terms of only physical abilities and swordsmanship, he was confident that he could beat the majority of his past family. He had practiced that for almost a decade afterall. However, if that was the case, then the Arc family wouldn't disown him. Although physical ability and weapon mastery was a heavy part of battle, another main part of battle was Aura and semblance, something that Jaune had lacked.

The Arcs were known for their semblances afterall. The mood of battle had completely changed, and one could tell that Jaune was completely backed into a corner now. Silavnus was continuing his onslaught of attacks with his two katanas. Blood was leaking from the small cuts and injuries that were appearing. Jaune had to accept the damage, he couldn't block everything.

Jaune knew that he was completely fucked when his feet felt tied and couldn't move. He looked down as he saw roots grasping his feet. Controlling plants and their growth was the semblance of Silvanus. He could completely alter the tides of battle by himself with this ability. Looking back up, he saw a victorious smile on Silvanus's face as he sliced diagonally across Jaune's chest.

Pain didn't even register as he crumpled down face first into the ground. His body felt so heavy. The dirt below his was saturated with his blood, and was now forming a pool. Jaune saw his own reflection through his blood. His eyes were so devoid of life.

It was then that pain started to register in his mind.

It hurt so much. It hurt so fucking much. It was also so fucking frustrating that he couldn't do anything but lie down there. He couldn't stand up, he didn't have any strength. He felt tears form in his eyes as he thought about his life.

He wondered why he was so dumb to even try to get revenge on the Arcs. There was no way he could stand up to them.

Why did he even bother to try and become a hunter under the guidance of Qrow? Why did he just silently take all of the student's shit? Why did he deserve all of this?

He didn't know if the fatal injury was fucking with his head, but Jaune just wanted it all to end. He was so goddamn tired of everything. He was slowly closing his eyes, letting the darkness embrace him, when he saw Silvanus's face.

It had that despicable, disgusting smirk. The same exact smirk that was displayed on his face when Jaune was disowned in front of his family.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

He felt his lungs desperately asking for air. He felt his heart pump blood like never before. He wanted to kill Silvanus. He wanted to murder him so fucking badly. It was weird. Jaune himself knew that he had no chances of winning against Silvanus. Yet he tried so hard to get up. His entire front was soaked in red, and still, he slowly went on his knees to stand up.

He felt Silvanus's katana blade against his neck. It felt like a sight one would see before a beheading execution. Jaune tried to move his body even more, but with no avail. It was then that the landscape suddenly changed.

Jaune didn't feel pain anymore. Looking down, he still had the fatal wound, with blood drenching everything, from his clothes to his skin. He looked around, and noticed that… there was nothing. It was like a white canvas, with only him as any substance. Silvanus was no longer in front of him, getting ready to behead him, Ozpin and Qrow were gone.

Was he dead? It was the first thought that ran through his head. He started to panick. No, no, no, no, no. He couldn't die like this. He had to repay Qrow and Ozpin, he had to do something with his second chance at life.

Perhaps this was punishment for wishing for death earlier.

Jaune let out a roar of anger as he slammed his fists on the ground. He repeated this action, even when it felt like his bones were breaking, even when it felt so hopeless. That is, until a voice resonated.

"Do you want to win?" Jaune snapped his head, eyes wide with surprise. In front of him, lay a formless black mist. It was so familiar to the scene near the Arc Manor, when he was about to die from the Beowolves.

"Yes, yes, I want to win, no, I NEED to win." The mist just stayed silent.

"I'll do anything, you can take over my body, you can ask for anything. I'll follow you for the rest of my life, I'll grovel before you for the rest of my life, just please. Let me win." Jaune continued his plea for what felt like an eternity. It didn't matter. He would continue to do so.

It was when his vision went black that Jaune noticed that the mist in front of him must've done something.

* * *

Qrow tried to end the fight when Silvanus put his katana against Jaune's neck. This was too much. The damn boy had endured too much already. For his life to end like this, it was too cruel. As he stepped forward, he felt his skin crawl suddenly. It was then that black aura suddenly erupted from Jaune's body. Black aura continued to flow, as if it was a fountain.

All of the spectators could only stare in shock as they felt the menacing aura. It was then that they noticed Jaune.

Jaune's wound had completely stopped bleeding, and he was now opening and closing his fist as if to test something. He then looked at Silvanus. Silvanus felt like hiding when he saw Jaune. The once blue eyes were now a bloodshot red, glowing. His head was tilted towards the side, and Silvanus, for the first time, felt fear from an enemy.

Silvanus quickly tried to attack Jaune before he grabbed his weapons. Jaune only lifted his arms as the black aura formed a wall in front of him. It seemed like black ink in water. It flowed without an exact form. But it acted like a shield, blocking the attack.

Suddenly, Silvanus felt his body erupt with pain as he was blown back.

Silvanus snapped his head back up, attempting to ignore the pain. Seeing Jaune and the black aura move closer, he used his semblance to create walls of trees and other plants. He encased himself in a dome in order to stop Jaune's advance. It was futile as the entire dome eroded. The plants and trees all decayed and crumbled, as Jaune appeared in front of Silvanus.

Blood spurt out of his mouth as he saw Jaune's sword impale him right in the middle of his chest.

* * *

His vision came back, and the sight that befell him made him stunned with surprise. Silvanus was in front of him, stuck to a wall thanks to his sword that impaled him in the chest. Blood was scattered all over the wall behind Silvanus, and a puddle similar to Jaune's earlier formed at the bottom of his feet.

He had won the fight. No, his power had won him the fight. His power gifted him the final blow. Jaune could only stare at Silvanus's own eyes as he lifted up one of Silvanus's katana.

Before he killed him, he needed answers.

"Why. Why didn't you or anyone stop his decision in disowning me? Weren't we brothers. We're blood related for fuck's sake! WHY DIDN'T ANY ONE OF MY SEVEN SIBLINGS DO ANYTHING TO HELP ME AFTER?" His scream echoed throughout the arena. His voice was becoming hoarse from the sudden yell. He started coughing up blood.

"I hate you… I hate all of you! I'll kill you all, I'll get my revenge." Jaune was muttering now. He picked up Silvanus's katana and was ready to end his life. He felt a hand grab his arm. Turning around, Jaune was met with Qrow stopping him.

"Why?" It was all Jaune said.

"If you were prepared to kill him, I would have left you to do it. Looking at you now, I know you're not ready." Not understanding his words, Jaune tried to refute before he saw his hands.

They were shaking uncontrollably. Jaune laughed at his pathetic self. He made a vow to get revenge, and he couldn't even keep it. Even now, he still felt Silvanus as his brother. The prospect of killing him disgusted Jaune.

It was at that moment where sudden nausea and pain hit Jaune. He could feel the torturous burn from his fatal wound as blood violently spurted from the wound again. Jaune fell down towards the ground as the world faded to black.

* * *

Pyrrha could only stand still behind the pillar, hiding. Her knees shook as she slowly fell to the floor. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Jaune was an Arc. Jaune was from the Arc family. She had to take time just to process this fact. Sure Jaune and Silvanus both had similar hair color and eyes, but a lot of people had blonde hair and blue eyes.

He was disowned. His family had abandoned him.

She took deep breaths. No wonder Jaune had froze during the news. He was going to have a possible reunion with his brother. His brother that only watched and even agreed with the choice of disowning him. It explained his actions during class earlier. How he hid himself. Anyone would want to avoid seeing Silvanus if they were in Jaune's shoes.

Pyrrha quickly made sure to hide herself better when she heard the rushed footsteps of the others taking Jaune and Silvanus towards the infirmary. After surveying the clearance, and making sure it was clear, Pyrrha made her way towards the bloodied battlefield.

Amidst all her feelings of nausea from seeing all of the blood, she couldn't help but feel slightly happy at the thought that Jaune had managed to win the battle. That led her to another thought. How had Jaune managed to beat Silvanus?

In class, Jaune was easily one of the weakest students attending. So how did he win? She remembered the black aura and shivered. She hugged herself as the air around her suddenly felt cold. It was so ominous, the aura.

She didn't feel like thinking anymore for the day. She just wanted to sleep it off. Hell, she didn't even know if she would tell Jaune that she knew of his past. As she left to leave the area, Pyrrha shrieked when she felt a hand grab her shoulders.

Ozpin was standing there with an amused expression on his face.

"Your ability to conceal yourself is pretty amazing Ms. Nikos. Although I have noticed you from the beginning, it is still impressive for a student. Anyhow, how do you feel about the whole spectacle that you saw?" Pyrrha froze. That means the headmaster knew she was tailing them from the beginning.

Considering the fact that he let her see this 'spectacle' as he put it, she assumed that he wanted her to see it. Why? Her question was answered with his next words.

"Although I would have immediately stopped any student from seeing this, I feel that I can trust you Ms. Nikos. I'm sorry to put you in such a spot, but Ms. Nikos, would you become friends with Jaune? At least accomplices?"

Pyrrha slowly nodded before talking.

"We've already reached a point of friendship, headmaster. If I may ask, why is Jaune not fighting as he is now in combat class or when he's hunting Grimm? He has enough strength to even defeat Silvanus Arc…" Ozpin stared at her silently before taking a sip of his coffee.

"As love as I'd like to tell you all the answers Ms. Nikos, I think it'd be better if you ask Jaune yourself. Jaune is a boy that would never talk about this to anyone that is not me or Qrow, no matter the circumstance. So please, Ms. Nikos, take the first step and talk to Jaune."

* * *

Throbs of pain and drowsiness were the only feelings that Jaune felt when he woke up. He was lying down in some kind of Hospital bed. A shitload of cords and machinery were beeping and were attached to him. He groaned at his current state.

As if god had planned it, Qrow had walked into the hospital room the moment that Jaune had woken up. Staring wide eyes at Jaune, Qrow suddenly cursed.

"Shit, the boy is awake!" He slammed the door shut before running off to some other place. An awkward silence wandered the air. A few moments passed until Ozpin and Qrow came into the room.

"How are you feeling kid?" Qrow asked.

"Like shit." Qrow chuckled.

"How long was I out?" Jaune asked. He knew that with the wounds he took, it would be days at the very least.

"Including today, that makes it a eleven days!" Jaune's eyes boggled after hearing the number of days. With quick thinking, Jaune was thinking about Beacon work.

It had been in total about a month since the first semester had started, which meant that exams would be near.

Shit.

Fuck.

A desperate scream could be heard all over the medical ward.

He had missed about a week's worth of lectures, which meant that he would have to self study History of Remnant, Grimm Knowledge, and Tactics. He had to pass the main knowledge classes due to Jaune having to purposely fail the Combat exam.

He would have to ask others to help him catch up. He prayed that Nora, Ren, or Pyrrha would help.

Qrow only laughed at Jaune's antics. He was worried that Jaune's personality might have changed from the fight, but it seemed that it didn't. He was glad.

"Although Silvanus had healed much earlier than you, he asked me to pass you this message. That he would keep his promise on the condition you set in the case that you win." Ozpin said. Jaune let out another sigh. It seemed that his identity wouldn't get leaked. He wished he had more aura. That way, these fucking wounds would heal faster…

"Well that's all for us. We'll come from time to time to make sure you're not lonely." Qrow had said before the two left. Once again, Jaune was left in his room with silence enveloping him.

When he heard the door open, Jaune wondered if they had forgotten something in the room. He was wrong. His eyes widened when he saw who had come in.

Pyrrha was standing there and awkwardly waved her hand in greeting. Jaune repeated the same gesture with just as much awkwardness.

"I noticed that you weren't in class for a long period of time, due to some accident. I thought I'd help you catch up." Jaune felt tears of joy well up in his eyes.

An angel had descended upon him.

* * *

 **Chapter 4 ends here, and I hope you guys had fun reading! Thanks again for taking your time to read this story! Thank you for anyone who fav'ed, followed, or left a review!**

 **FalseOrdeals**


	5. Chapter 5 - Conversation

**Author's Note**

 **I first need to apologize for the extremely late update. My life literally took a steaming shit on my face the past two months. For those who don't know I'm supposed to be in my second year of college.**

 **Notice I said 'I'm supposed to be'?**

 **Well, turns out that I needed to go to Korea to handle shit. I'm a Korean-American, having a dual citizenship. During 11th grade in highschool, (which I attended a foreign school in Korea due to my dad's job) I had to go to Chicago embassy for like 3 days just to turn in documents and shit to GIVE UP my korean citizenship.**

 **Turns out it didn't work or some bullshit like that.**

 **For those of you who know about Korea, you guys might know what this means. Korea has a draft for the military, and I get the great 'privilege' to be drafted.**

 **Now I don't know all the rules and shit to delay or prolong any of the processes, I've been told that I couldn't delay my physical examination test that I need to take in order to get drafted. So I basically had to move out of college in the US during the first semester, and move to Korea.**

 **So during the past 2 months, I've been applying to Korea colleges, in case my break year in my American college doesn't work out. I've also been wallowing in my own room about the situation that was dropped on my head suddenly.**

 **The results came out for my date to enter the military, which is July next year. Yeah. At least I got into Katusa, which is the joint army between Americans and Koreans.**

 **Now while I should've gotten over the situation and just handle it, it took me two months for me to finally just accept this bullshit. Watching Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series (I'm very immature) and playing Overwatch helped a lot. Which leads me to my second point.**

 **I apologize if the quality of the chapters drop. While I enjoy writing, in my current state, I'm writing for stress relief, not for the reason of actually having fun.**

 **I know I shouldn't be exactly writing for that purpose, but it feels like I owe you readers. I never expected to get so many views or followers, and being someone that loves to read other people's fanfics, I know how it feels to wait.**

 **Just needed to get my story out, and apologize for the late update once again.**

* * *

Writing down notes with his current condition was straight out horrible. The major wounds of his body would burn up the moment he made large movements with his arms. He would write notes for a short while, before needing a rest. This cycle continued throughout the study session.

It was at these moments that Jaune realized just how kind Pyrrha was. Not once during one of the breaks had she showed any signs of annoyance. She just sat patiently, waiting for him to recover from his pain.

He also learned how great of a teacher she was. Pyrrha didn't let Jaune just copy notes that she wrote down. She made sure that she would explain topics, making Jaune jot down notes himself.

"How did you write down this many notes during Professor Port's class?" Jaune was genuinely curious. He had not seen one person, except Weiss, write down notes during his class. Simply put, they didn't learn anything in that class.

"Library books. I asked him what books could help me understand the topic better." Pyrrha answered. Jaune nodded back. That was what he had planned to do. Wincing from the pain, Jaune made sure to finish his sentence before placing his pencil back, leaning into the bed to rest again.

Overall, the study session the two had going on was very calm and productive. Although Jaune hated studying, it was something he needed to do. But there was one thing that was bothering him.

Pyrrha seemed to be nervous. Anxious even. This confused Jaune. It had been a couple of days since Pyrrha had started to help him study. They already had a few amount of study sessions, and she had never shown such emotions. Jaune only assumed that she was having a bad day. But why would she seem nervous then?

Pyrrha on the other hand, was having a nervous breakdown. At first, she came in with the sole purpose of helping him study. Although Headmaster Ozpin's words echoed repeatedly in her head, she had dismissed the thought of bringing up the topic of his fight with Silvanus.

However, as the days passed on, she couldn't help but feel curious. It was this day that Pyrrha had decided to talk to Jaune about it. Problem was, she didn't how to start the conversation about it. She obviously knew that this was a very sensitive topic, and bringing it up halfheartedly could produce negative results.

There was really no other way to bring it up other then a straightforward approach. Jaune put his pencil down and leaned back towards the bed, stretching his uninjured arm. Pyrrha saw this action and decided it was now or never.

"Are you okay with how things turned out with Silvanus?" She winced as she visibly saw Jaune freeze in motion. The look on his face wasn't making things any better either.

Both of them were silent for a few minutes, but the few minutes felt like an eternity. The mute atmosphere was broken as Jaune barely whispered out a few words.

"What do you mean?" He didn't know how much Pyrrha knew about his situation. He would try and find out. Pyrrha let out a sigh as she heard these words. He was playing dumb. Trying to avoid the topic altogether. Taking a deep breath, she spoke out.

"Jaune, I saw everything that night. The fight between you and Silvanus. I'm asking you if you're fine with how things ended between the two of you." Jaune's eyes widened as his face turned to face Pyrrha. Sweat was forming around his face, and he was taking audible gulps of saliva.

Well shit. That was the first thought that passed his mind. He had planned to hide his whole situation from everyone, even from his only friend Pyrrha. It was just something he would rather have hidden. The look on Pyrrha's face told him that she wanted answers now. He scrunched up his face in a scowl.

He had two options. His first was to mix truths with lies. While this option did help keep some things in secrecy, it could pose as a problem in the future. What if the truth was somehow revealed in some way or form in the future? What if Pyrrha found out that he lied? While Jaune was sure ultimately she would forgive him, it still would be uncomfortable for him.

The second was to just tell the truth to her, and not drag out this out. He was sure that he would be uncomfortable with her knowing about his past, but it would be better than lying. Putting his hand over his face, Jaune fell deeper into the bed, hoping the bed would somehow swallow him up. Knowing it would never happen, Jaune removed his hand and looked up at the ceiling.

"To be honest, I don't know how I feel about the incident." Jaune took another deep breath before asking a question.

"You know that I'm related to him then? If you were there at that night?" Pyrrha startled at the sudden question asked towards her. She quickly cleared her throat before giving a nod of her head.

"Yes, I'm aware of your… family circumstances." She finished hesitantly. Jaune stared at her as she answered. She was aware that he was disowned. Did she know the reason though? It seemed like a good starting point to start there. Clearing his throat, Jaune sat with a straighter posture, knowing that the conversation would be long.

"M-my fami-, no, the Arc family," He corrected, "It'd be the biggest understatement to say that they have a lot of pride in their combat abilities." Pyrrha slowly nodded her head as she listened. She unconsciously let out a relieved breath of air. He was talking to her, opening up.

"From a very young age, you go through some kind of initiation, something that tests someone's aura. The amount of aura, the purity, other attributes that help determine the overall capacity and strength of an aura that someone has. As you saw from combat class and from the beginning of the semester, my aura is basically non-existent." His mouth felt bitter, talking about his past.

"Is that a good enough reason to disown somebody?" Pyrrha asked. She clenched her fists as she heard his explanation. She looked up at Jaune as she heard him laugh. It was such a bitter laugh.

"From the outside perspective, it's ridiculous, isn't it?" His chuckling stopped.

"It's the Arc name. Every Arc, from past to present, has the greatest aura ever. They also have the greatest combat oriented semblances too. A single Arc could probably change the whole tide of battle. If Silvanus wasn't so prideful, and focused on his semblance instead of his swordsmanship, I probably would've lost instantly." He felt his teeth grind together as he said these words.

"Anyways, if you don't already know, every single Arc becomes a big name in Remnant. They become monsters of war, and because of my aura, I would be the one to put the first dent in the entire family line. To be the embarrassing Arc that couldn't lead a battle to victory. I don't even know my semblance, and even if I did, I wouldn't be abl-"

"You were able to beat Silvanus, no?" Jaune's eyes snapped upwards to look at the one who interrupted him. He saw Pyrrha's eyes and the emotions. They were showing anger and confusion towards the judgement that his family made. He let out a sigh. No one could understand the Arcs. The almost psychopathic obsession they had with strength. What having aura levels like him meant.

"Didn't you beat him with your… semblance?" Jaune winced as he heard the hesitation in her voice.

"That's not exactly my semblance." He searched her face for any emotions while saying this. Her face showed no shock or surprise, and Jaune understood that she already knew that the power wasn't his semblance.

"It was around eight years ago, when I was disowned. I was told to leave the Arc Manor and find someway to survive on my own. As I was making my way to the nearest town, there were Beowolves that saw me as easy game to hunt."

 _He froze with shock as he heard the growling noises approach him. He turned around as he saw the blood red eyes of the Beowolves approach him._

"I didn't have anything to fend for myself, other than a short knife that my family left for me, a parting gift. Knowing I couldn't kill any of the Beowolves with that, I turned and ran."

 _Cold wind continually cut his skin as he ran for his life. His cries were filled with hysteric fear as he heard the noises of Grimm approach him. They were coming closer and closer_.

"Of course, I couldn't outrun them. They caught up. They were going to kill me. I underestimated the human instinct to survive. I can't even remember, but somehow I managed to kill the Grimm."

 _Only roars of anger could be heard in the clearing as the snow was painted red from blood. Black bodies were scattered about, with only one small figure kneeling in the snow._

"I was gonna die, with the injuries that were inflicted on me. I was bleeding everywhere, and I was gonna give up, until I saw something. Until I heard something."

 _His eyes snapped open as he heard a voice. What was it? Who was it?_

"All I remember is a black form. Almost like a fog. It gave me an opportunity to live. To survive. I took the chance. I disregarded the consequences, I just wanted to live. Somehow, it actually saved me." He showed a very small, sad, smile as he reminisced the events that he could remember.

"From there, I awoke in the presence of our headmaster, in which I trained under the mentorship of his friend Qrow. It seemed that the black substance gave me a power that I didn't realize I had until later. That power is what beat Silvanus, not me." Pyrrha could only sit there silently as he heard his story. It was… a lot to digest at once.

"Jaune, you defeated him with a power that you hold. You defeated Silvanus." Jaune opened his mouth to argue. He decided against it. Now was not the time to argue with her.

"I saw your skills, your swordsmanship. Why do you hide them?" Pyrrha asked. It was something that came up in her mind the moment she saw him fight. He could've easily defeated Cardin in class, or hunt enough Grimm to last him a lifetime of points.

"Ask the crazy headmaster. He has fun tormenting my life. But in all seriousness, it's mostly because of this strange ability of mine. I came along way from the beginning, almost managing to control the power, but it's still difficult. Especially when I get angry or when I'm in combat. It's like an instinct to let loose. So Ozpin decided that it'd be a great way to train me mentally to be constantly beat up in class." He smirked as he saw Pyrrha's shocked face.

"Wouldn't that catalyze your anger and make you let loose?" She couldn't understand. Then again, it was the headmaster they were talking about.

"Getting beaten to a pulp is something that I'm actually used to. You fight with Qrow, you get squashed. It's gotten to the point where I can handle getting beat easily." His smirk widened as he saw her face contort into even more shock and worry.

"Right." Jaune laughed loudly after hearing her response. He wondered what she felt like right now. To learn that he was basically a walking bomb that could explode any minute. Hearing a genuine laugh from him made a smile show on her face.

"Well, I won't pry much into your life. I believe everyone needs privacy. Just know that I'm all open ears if you need someone to talk to." Jaune jerked his head towards Pyrrha as he heard the words. He could only silently stare at her. This was what he wanted. A friend.

Perhaps having someone know his secret wasn't bad afterall.

"Enough about that, we need to get you to pass the exams that you missed. It's back to studying." Jaune groaned. He really, really, disliked studying.

* * *

He was breathing heavily, as his eyes were concentrated on the enemy in front of him. He couldn't make a mistake. If he did, the enemy would capitalize on it immediately and punish him for it. He felt beads of sweat roll down his head. The atmosphere was too intense. He wasn't allowed to get help from anyone. It was just him, and the enemy.

He made the first move, slashing around his weapon in hand. Yes! He was taking the advantage. He could do this. He could overcome the ridiculous enemy that stood in front of him. Bring glory to all the effor-

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

"DAMMIT!" Jaune roared as he stood up from his seat. He could only silently weep with his head down as the professor walked towards him.

"Well Mr. Crocea, it seems that time is up. Please hand in your exam." Jaune glared at Professor Oobleck, who only looked at him with mild amusement.

"It was quite entertaining to see the farce that you put up while taking the exam." Jaune only grumbled inaudible words as he slammed his head down on the desk. While he was happy that he was finally done with his exams, he couldn't help but feel depressed at the fact that he couldn't answer many of the questions on the one he just handed in.

He was just about to remember the study material too.

Sighing, Jaune walked out of the classroom. As he walked out, he was greeted with the sight of Pyrrha waiting.

"How'd you do?" She asked. Jaune let out a groan as he motioned with his hand. He showed his thumb pointing 90 degrees, pointing to the right. She chuckled.

"So-so huh? Well since you're finally done, how about some Grimm hunting? I thought that with exams and other things stressing you, it'll be a good opportunity to let loose." His ears perked up at the proposal. Yes, killing some Grimm was what he needed. He smiled as he looked up. His grin told her the answer and they headed towards the locker rooms to change and head out.

* * *

In their combat attire, they met up at Emerald Forest.

"So what do you want to go for? Deathstalkers? I would prefer something that would let me rest for the next couple of weeks." Hearing her suggestion, Jaune started to hesitate a little.

"Ummmm, I'd prefer something small, you know? Something like Ursas or Beowolves." He hesitantly offered, and Pyrrha knew something was wrong. Why did he want to go for weaker Grimm? There was no reason for him to offer that, he was well recovered from his battle against Silvanus. Then she understood.

"Jaune, I know about your situation, remember?" Jaune could only blink with a empty expression on his face. A few moments later, his face slightly turned red from embarrassment before apologizing.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry. It's just that I expected no one to find out. Yeah, Let's try and go for a Deathstalker." He replied quickly. Pyrrha only let a small smile show on her face. They both headed towards the clearing. After a short while, they had managed to find their wanted target.

They quickly engaged into combat, Jaune blocking the initial attack of the Deathstalker. He smiled. Unlike last time, he could let loose this time. And let loose he did. He chained consecutive attacks with his perfected sword techniques, while using his shield to its utmost capabilities. While the adrenaline caused his blood to pump faster, he couldn't help but have fun.

Pyrrha looked with renewed surprise. His skill with his choice of weapon was truly amazing. His senses in battle and instinct were honed. There was almost no wasted movements, and above all, she saw that he was enjoying the fight. She quickly joined the fight, and the two made quick disposal of the Grimm.

Collecting a part of the Deathstalker, Jaune walked back with Pyrrha to Beacon. As they walked back, Jaune couldn't help but look back at the dead Grimm and wonder. During the fight, he hadn't felt the power try and overtake him. In fact, he almost didn't feel it at all. He was broken out of his stupor as he heard Pyrrha call him. With one final glance back, he hurriedly ran towards Pyrrha.

* * *

Clenching and unclenching his hand, Silvanus sat in the transport plane, looking out the window in thought. His face twitched in anger, brows furrowing as he remembered his loss against his long lost brother. No, he wasn't his brother anymore. Jaune himself said that.

A smile showed on his face as he remembered Jaune's words. What were the words he said? That he was gonna kill them all? Silvanus was now snorting with laughter to himself. It seemed that there would be some amusing events during the next decade.

He wanted to tell Alexandra just to see her face. Knowing his sister, she would act completely nonchalant at first. Then later, when she was alone, she would probably drown herself in sorrow.

He scowled as he remembered that he couldn't tell anyone. He only wanted to tell Alexandra to have some amusement. Even if he had won, he wouldn't have told his father or anyone. His thoughts quickly traveled back to the fight he had.

The black aura, it was a complete mystery. Perhaps Jaune had managed to hide it somehow? No, Jaune had no reason to hide the power from the family. In fact, Jaune would've displayed it in front of their father if he had a chance. The aura test would prove that Jaune didn't have any dormant power inside him. That would mean only one thing. He got the power from someone else. But who?

Silvanus just leaned back into the chair. Indeed, the next few years would be entertaining.

* * *

 **This chapter is shorter than usual, but it was all I could pump out in the moment. It's been way too long since I wrote, and I'm re-writing and reviewing the plot lines and events for this story.**

 **That's chapter 5! Hope you guys enjoyed it!**

 **FalseOrdeals**


	6. Chapter 6 - Mission

**Author's Note**

 **With Christmas vacation and other shit happening in life, this chapter became delayed. I went on a longass family vacation, and that was nice to cool off with the things that happened around three months ago. First off, I am guilty of spending most of December playing Final Fantasy XV. (Before going on vacation)**

 **Once I came back from my vacation, I found that my email was hacked? I don't know what happened, but I couldn't log into PSN, and I couldn't log into my email either. As someone who uses google docs to write my stories, well, it meant they were gone.**

 **So for a short while, I was pissed. Motivation kinda takes a hit when something you spent hours on just disappears. After listening to some motivating rap music I started rewriting this chapter. Somethings I noticed.**

 **I'm probably going to revise the first chapter. Ever had that moment when at the time, you think something is genius, then look back at it weeks later, and it becomes the most stupid shit ever? That's what happened to me. Specifically, I'm rewriting the chapter to make more clear what the power Jaune has is. It's the sole reason. So once it's updated, I'll make sure to include in the AN of the next chapter or something.**

 **I apologize for the late update, and the mediocre length and quality of this chapter.**

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Jaune knew he should've skipped the morning assembly. It was something that wouldn't matter to him at all. His hesitation ended up with him sitting through a multi hour assembly. Ozpin was currently on the podium explaining the schedule in the upcoming weeks. The Vytal Festival was approaching, and the headmaster was making sure that everyone knew about the schedules and limitations that students were to follow during this period.

To be exact, the Vytal Festival was in three weeks. Before the festival began, there were two major events, two events that Jaune had no interest in. The first was the elimination tournament for the academy representatives. The second was the major reception festivity that would take up the whole weekend.

The elimination tournament had many different subjects, ranging from team battles, to 2v2s, and 1v1s. Due to freshman students not having teams, they would be able to participate in only the doubles and singles. The Vytal Festival was a battle of pride between schools, and each school would make sure to send their best representative. The entire week would consist of scheduled matches between students of the same grade.

The second event was the Vytal Festival Reception, or simply put, the school dance. It was a time where students would be able to socialize with others. Having connections in other regions were crucial, and students would make sure to gain the maximum benefit from this event.

Ozpin's speech was mostly about the elimination tournament, as it was the event that would come first. It was exactly why Jaune regretted coming to the assembly. He already knew he wasn't going to participate in the Vytal Festival as a Beacon representative. Unlike the other students, he just simply wasn't interested in participating.

He was interested in the Reception. It was a rare, once-a-year, chance that he would have to meet people from Atlas, Vacuo, etc. Although his only friend was Pyrrha, and he didn't have great social abilities, he still held onto hope.

With his head buried into his hands, Jaune let out a silent groan as the assembly finally finished. Jaune quickly stood up in order to leave. Before he could, his eyes made contact with Ozpin's. The headmaster's eyes told Jaune the message.

 _Meet me at my office_.

Confusion was visibly etched on Jaune's face. He hadn't seen the headmaster so serious in a long time. Pondering about what the possible cause could be, Jaune quickly navigated around the students leaving the assembly hall. He didn't want to keep the headmaster waiting for long.

As he arrived to the entrance to the infamous clock tower that Ozpin resided in, Jaune couldn't help but feel uneasy. He rode the elevator, and the light noise of the elevator signaled the arrival. Taking a deep breath, Jaune stepped out and entered Ozpin's office. The first thing Jaune noticed was the tall man that stood next to Ozpin's desk.

If Jaune could describe the man with one word, it would definitely be military. The man carried himself with confidence and grace. If Jaune didn't see the man's eye, he would've mistaken him for a Schnee. White was the color that adorned the clothing. From white gloves to the white suit, the man seemed to have a liking for the color. The black hair and eyes proved that the man wasn't a Schnee. The man was obviously conditioned by battle, one look at his eyes said everything. The two exchanged a courteous nod as Ozpin started introductions.

"Ironwood, Jaune. Jaune, Ironwood." It took a moment for Jaune to realize that introductions was over. It seemed that Ozpin wanted to skip formalities and go straight for the issue. Ironwood gave an approving nod as he wanted the same.

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee before speaking up.

"General Ironwood here seemed to have gotten Intel about a possible threat." Jaune took a moment to absorb the information. Taking advantage of the momentary silence, Jaune quickly asked a question.

"Threat as in, the Grimm?" He hesitantly asked.

"It would be quite fortunate if it was the Grimm." General Ironwood spoke out.

"It has come to the general's attention that unidentified individuals attempted many attempts at sabotage. From trying to hack and destroy Intel, to stealing of large supplies of dust." Ozpin finished. Jaune had heard of the robberies. If he remembered correctly, there was one group that committed the acts that Ozpin listed.

"The White Fang?" Ironwood let out a small hum as he listened to Jaune's question.

"The White Fang is highly suspected to work with the group we are talking about. Although we don't have full confirmation, it is highly probable that we are facing hunters and huntresses." As he listened to the briefing, Jaune couldn't help but ask more questions.

"Alright, so our enemy is possibly the joint force of hunters and the White Fang. Why did you ask me to come here then?" Ozpin let down his mug as he faced Jaune.

"It is accurate to say that you will not be attempting to try and participate in the Vytal Festival, correct?" Ozpin asked. A quick nod from Jaune was all the confirmation he needed.

"As you know, the White Fang has evolved from a rebel group to more of a terrorist organization. Knowing that, if you were in their shoes, what kinds of places would you attempt to attack in order to force your message across?" Jaune rolled the question in his head before understanding what Ozpin was trying to say.

"The Vytal Festival. It has almost everything they are aiming for, except for supplies. Tons of people will be exposed to danger, allowing the entire audience to be taken hostage. It'll also be huge news all over the world." Ozpin let out an approving grunt as he listened to Jaune's analysis.

"Yes, that is what we were thinking. Unfortunately, in these kinds of situations, the offence has the advantage. We are trying to cover every single possible attack angle they have. While we have the city and stadium covered-" Ozpin said as he sent a sharp glance towards Ironwood, one that Ironwood returned. "There are still many different approaches that they could take."

Although Jaune was wondering what the sudden exchange of looks was about, he dismissed the thought and waited for Ozpin to continue.

"This is where you come in. We want you to try and investigate the students that come from different regions. It is possible that the terrorist group tries to blend in with the large student body." His eyes were wide as saucers as Jaune heard his mission.

"You realize, how many students are coming right? You can't possibly expect me to investigate them all by myself." He said in a deadpan manner.

"Yes, we are well aware of that. Although both Ironwood and I are certain that no students from our academies are involved with them, it is not smart of us to risk not double checking on the situation. That is also why we are entrusting you Jaune, with choosing members to help you with your mission. I trust your judgement Jaune, and I know that you are capable of handling this." Ozpin finished.

Well, a shit ton of pressure was suddenly put on him.

"Ummm, alright, I'll do everything in my power to try and succeed." Jaune said. No other response came to mind as this whole situation was too sudden.

"I heard many things about you from Ozpin. Although it is unfortunate that we meet under these circumstances, I hope that we could become closer allies in the future." Ironwood dismissed Jaune with a wave of his hand as he finished his sentence.

Jaune turned around to leave, quickly exiting the clock tower before realizing exactly what burden was placed upon him. Well, shit. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as panic started to slowly rise in his chest. How the hell was he supposed to investigate the entire student body? He quickly recalled Ozpin's mission briefing, remembering that he could choose allies. He only knew one person in a somewhat personal level, and decided to head straight for that person.

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"Help me." Pyrrha's face reflected confusion as she listened to Jaune's pleas. Noticing her confusion, Jaune quickly explained his mission to her. After a long session of explaining, Pyrrha was slowly nodding her head as she was understanding his situation. She immediately noticed the amount of trust Ozpin put into Jaune. Not only was the headmaster handing such an important mission to him, but the headmaster was allowing Jaune to choose his own allies. From the information she was given, Pyrrha could pinpoint exactly what was troubling Jaune.

"You don't exactly know who to recruit do you?" Seeing Jaune flinch after hearing her words, Pyrrha knew she was correct. It was understandable. The entire student body ridiculed or ignored him. There was little Jaune could do to improve his social life.

"Yeah, about that… I was hoping you knew people that are trustworthy. Considering that you socialize with a lot more of the other students than me." Pyrrha unconsciously formed a fist as she heard his assumption. It was to be expected. People didn't realize the expectations placed upon her.

"While I do have some people in mind, didn't the headmaster specifically say that you should do the recruiting?" While it pleased her that Jaune was putting complete trust in her, she wanted Jaune to have more confidence in his own abilities and decisions.

"Well my judgement is that I can trust you, which means that technically, anyone that you recruit is actually someone who I recruit." Jaune halted his words as he saw the pointed look Pyrrha was giving him. Yeah, his bullshit logic wasn't going to work on her.

He let out a loud sigh as he tilted his head back. He needed a starting point. Jaune quickly formed a quick list of students that he interacted with. His face contorted more and more as he read through his mental list. Cardin Winchester was someone that he interacted with a lot.

Jaune blanched as he imagined the possible scenario that could ensure. Cardin wouldn't believe that the headmaster even issued Jaune the mission. Crossing off Cardin off the possible candidates, Jaune looked at the next name on his mental list.

The next few names would be hard to judge individually. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. He would be lying if he said he saw them separated. Although the group had a very unique chemistry, anyone could see that the four young adults were very close friends.

If his first assessment of Weiss was correct, then she would be the easiest to recruit out of the four. The reasons being that Weiss was quite fond of Pyrrha. He remembered the white-haired girl's eagerness in trying to be acquainted with Pyrrha.

The question was, was she someone he could trust? It was common knowledge that she was a Schnee, which hated the White Fang. Given that Ozpin had said that the White Fang were highly suspected to be involved, he doubted that a Schnee would side with them. The Schnee Dust Company had publicly voiced their negative opinion on the terrorist group enough times.

Something to note was that recruiting the Schnee could possibly lead to obtaining three other allies. The allies being her group of friends. Whether that was good or not, Jaune didn't know.

Scratching his hair with uncertainty, Jaune turned around and headed towards his first target. Thinking all day wouldn't help. He needed to at least get a start on his mission.

"Did you decide on someone?" Pyrrha asked as she quickly followed Jaune.

"I did. The third member in our super-secret-espionage-stealth-recon-intel-unit will be Weiss Schnee." Jaune answered over his shoulders. Pyrrha let a small chuckle escape her lips as she heard his answer. The smile changed into a thoughtful line as she recalled information about the Schnee.

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"Alright here's the plan. I will try with my utmost capabilities to try and convince her to trust and join us. If you see that there's no progress being made at all, then I need you to come and save my ass, understand?" Pyrrha nodded as Jaune laid out the basic outlines of his plan to recruit Weiss.

The two were currently inside an empty classroom waiting for a certain female to appear. Pyrrha was standing in a corner in the back of the room. She would stay hiding until Jaune needed her assistance.

Jaune had sent Weiss a message through an anonymous scroll number. He doubted that she would show up is she knew it was him. In fact, he was even less sure if she would show up in the first place. He hoped that his message title of IMPORTANT would attract her attention.

But to say that he was not surprised when she actually walked in the room would be a humongous lie. His eyes were opened as wide as they could be as they made eye contact with the blue colored eyes of the Schnee. The room froze as the two continued the eye contact. A few seconds later a scoff could be heard.

Face tinged with red because of frustration, Weiss quickly turned around to leave.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Jaune shouted desperately. His morale would hit an all time low if he failed before even explaining. Letting out a very audible sigh, Weiss faced Jaune.

"One minute. Be grateful that I'm even giving you the time." Weiss said.

Great. At least she was giving him a chance. Now, all he needed to do was explain the mission in a believable way.

"The headmaster thinks there's going to be some kind of attack during the vytal festival. He asked me to gather a few students that could help investigate the students from other schools that are participating." He nodded approvingly at his own words. He felt pretty confident with his explanation.

The amused look on Weiss's face said otherwise.

"You want me to believe, that the headmaster not only entrusted you with such a mission, but also the fact that out of all the students, he chose to tell you this classified information? You, the school dunce?" Jaune's confident smirk disappeared immediately after hearing her words. Looking at the situation through the Schnee's perspective, it was pretty ridiculous. He probably should've chosen his words more wisely.

"Uhhhhhhh… Yeah?" It was obvious to anyone that the conversation was going nowhere. It was also obvious that Weiss would leave very, very soon. His desperation caused him to yell out the next words without thinking.

"The White Fang is involved, and I'm sure you would like to even the score with them." Shit. Jaune internally and externally cringed as he heard his own words. The look on Weiss's face was further confirmation of how dumb his words were.

"Even when knowing how much the Schnee have lost to the White Fang, you dare bring them up in such a way in front of me? Just to try and make me involved with your petty deceit?" It was his fault. The White Fang would be a sensitive topic to a Schnee. He fucked up.

Luckily, Pyrrha had decided to come to his rescue.

"Wouldn't be better to at least think the whole situation over once?" Pyrrha started. It was Weiss's turn to be shocked as she saw the renowned fighter make her appearance.

"Were you asked to come here to listen to this fabrication too?" Jaune let out a depressed laugh as he heard Weiss's words. They were filled with so much certainty.

"Doesn't it actually make sense for the headmaster to choose Jaune?" Pyrrha continued as she saw confusion etched in Weiss's face. "It's expected that a top tier student to be chosen with such a task. Wouldn't be smart to make the leader of the operation someone others wouldn't expect? I don't think I need to tell you the public's views on Jaune. The leader of a mission is the most important person, and people would never paint Jaune as the leader of the operation." Pyrrha finished.

Weiss was filled with contemplation as she heard the words of Pyrrha. Logically, it made sense. It was just that some part of her wanted to deny that the headmaster really chose Jaune out of all people for such an important mission.

"Alright. I'll choose to entertain you for now. Don't think that this will make me accept you as a better huntsman. I accept people based on skill, something that you so evidently lack." Depressed tears poured down his face as Weiss turned around to leave. Thank god Pyrrha was here with him. Jaune stopped Weiss from leaving the second time that day. He couldn't let her go yet. There was one important thing.

"There's one more thing we need to discuss. It's about the rest of your group. Ruby, Blake, and Yang. I'll be honest. I don't know much about you or the other three. I chose you based on some deducing and reasoning. Other than the first impressions I get from people, I have nothing else to judge people, given my social situation. So I want to ask you seriously, is any of your friends trustworthy with sharing this task. Of course, I'll decide in the end whether they are or not. I'm asking this because if you decide on a neutral stance that they are not, then I want you to make complete certainty that word of this mission won't reach them." He needed to make sure that Weiss wasn't going to spread word of this to anyone.

"I'll just say this about them. I don't become acquainted with people who I don't trust. They are all people who I know will become great huntresses in the future. Yes, I do think they are just as well equipped as me to take on this mission. With her final words, Weiss left the room.

When a hand touched his shoulders, Jaune turned his head around.

"You do know that you can't hide your connection to the headmaster forever, right? We were able to give Weiss a brief excuse for now, but she is intelligent. As is everyone at this academy. The people you recruit will question the headmaster's decision of assigning you as the leader of this mission." Jaune's eyes stared off the distant clearing outside the window.

He knew. He was also certain the the headmaster wanted that outcome. The reasoning would remain uncertain, as this was Ozpin he was talking about.

Letting out a sigh, he walked towards the door. Weiss had told him that her friends were worth considering as candidates, and some observations were needed to be done.

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The group dynamic between the four friends were indeed, very interesting.

Jaune was currently eating his sandwich as he sat next to the group he was interrogating. Weiss had made him sit next to them, and surprisingly, nothing really had happened. They had exchanged greetings, and continued on as if it was a normal day.

No condescending remarks, no snide comments or anything.

The first person on the list was Ruby Rose. Jaune had seen the girl only a few times. During those times, he had labeled the girl with a few, carefully selected words. Cheerful, happy, ambitious, social-yet-kind-of-awkward were some of the few words.

The fact that she was three years younger than the rest of them still shocked him. He had never seen her fight, nor had he seen her weapon. Considering that she essentially skipped three years of training, he didn't doubt her ability as a huntress. The main problem would be, could she correctly judge people. The possible undercover enemies would be hard to pinpoint.

Not to say that he could do it easily. He still hated Ozpin for giving him such a task. Still, he was certain that he could read people better than Ruby. His pride would be severely wounded otherwise.

Still, if the girl had managed to get Weiss's approval, then there was something that couldn't be seen in the exterior. He would have to watch a bit more in order to make a decision. He had around a week before the foreign students came.

Next was Blake Belladonna. She was someone who Jaune had an idea about. They shared a class together, and it was easy to identify the girl as the more intellectual type. She always had a book out. Speaking of the devil, she was reading one right now. People who read books were smart.

Looking at the group right now, Blake rarely contributed to the discussions. She was someone who would prefer to listen to the conversations of others. It was hard to tell whether she was listening to the conversation, or reading her book. It seemed that she was well versed in multitasking.

It was a trait that was desirable in the mission. She was good at observing, listening, and doing such things in a stealthy way. Blake would be recruited.

Last was Yang Xiao Long. Jaune had seen the girl fight, and boy, could she fight. In terms of raw power, it wouldn't surprise him to see her on top of the first years. Listening to her talk, he could see that she was the joker of the four.

Other than her abilities in fighting, Jaune couldn't make out any traits about the girl. From past experiences, he saw the blonde hang out with many other students. She was the most sociable member of the four.

His scroll's alarm rang out as it was time for him to leave. The elimination tournaments had already started, and the schedule was tightly packed. Currently, only the singles tournament was going on, and Pyrrha's fight was going to be soon.

Standing up and saying his farewell to the group, Jaune thought about the three possible allies. Although he didn't doubt Weiss's words that they were all prepared for the task, Jaune still wasn't sure. He got rid of the thought as he headed towards the arena. He had a week to spend. For now, he needed to cheer for Pyrrha.

He quickly navigated his way around the school until he arrived at his desired location. Luckily, students were busy participating themselves. This meant that there was almost no crowd when fights were going on. It seemed that Pyrrha was an exception. There was a small crowd sitting around, and Jaune had to find a place far less populated.

Although he was further away then he had hoped, he could still see clearly, so he settled with the spot that he had found. Jaune currently sat at almost the very last row. The two fighters were already in their combat stances as they waited for the countdown.

Time ticked slowly as the entire room focused on the two. Glancing at the Pyrrha's opponent, it was someone Jaune didn't recognize at all. He whipped his attention back towards the fight as he heard the ring, signalling the beginning of the fight.

Immediately, Pyrrha rushed towards her opponent, holding her shield in front of her face. Once she had closed the distance between the two, she raised her right hand as she thrusted forward with her weapon. Instead of parrying the blow, her opponent chose to completely dodge the attack, rolling to the side.

It was the wrong choice to make.

Against the majority of the first years, the dodge would have been fine. However, the wasted movements in the roll would allow easy openings for veterans.

Veterans such as Pyrrha.

Noticing her opportunity at once, Pyrrha switched her pivot foot, stomping it forward towards the direction in which her opponent rolled. Pyrrha was too fast. Her opponent had barely recovered from his roll, only to be smashed in the chest with her shield.

Her opponent staggered backwards as the blow stunned him. His breath was knocked out of him, and Jaune grimaced as he related himself with that pain. Qrow had dealt a similar attack on him too many times.

Pyrrha propelled herself into the air, using her opponent's body as leverage. She had ran up towards him, running up his stomach and chest, and flipping herself into the air. In mid air, Pyrrha had switched her weapon to the rifle form, aiming straight down towards her opponent's face. She hit all bullets perfect precision, and aimed for the killing blow. As she descended down from her shooting barrage, she switched back Milo to it's javelin form. She reared her arm back, and just as she landed, Pyrrha had thrown the javelin into the ground.

After the smoke from the attack cleared, everyone could see that her opponent was on the ground, with the javelin wedged into the ground right next to his face. Although everyone already knew who the winner was, people still glanced towards the interface screen.

A perfect victory.

Pyrrha had ended the fight without taking a single hit. Her opponent's aura flashed repeatedly in the screen, as it reached the danger levels, indicating the end of the fight. Jaune could only let out a deadpan laugh. She was good. Ridiculously good. She didn't belong with the freshmen. Head and shoulders above the others.

He stood up and made his way down into the arena to congratulate his friend. As he neared the stage, he saw Pyrrha offering her hand to her opponent.

"Tch. No chance. Can't do shit against a genious." After grabbing her hand and standing up, Pyrrha's opponent hurriedly escaped from the arena. It was for a short instance, but Jaune saw the solemn look that was on Pyrrha's face. Before he could reach her, the spectators had surrounded Pyrrha, showering her with praise.

It was as if the freshmen representative was already chosen.

'Must be nice to be a genius.' 'Good luck in the Vytal Festival.'

Words of the following were spilled out one after the other. As Jaune heard these words, he couldn't help but feel jealous. It was something that he would never hear. He was the school laughing stock. Expectations were something that was not given to him.

It seemed that Pyrrha didn't appreciate those words. Although she held the polite expression, he could see that it was strained. The grass was always greener on the other side. The saying existed for a reason.

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 **After Note**

 **Starting from here, about half the things that happen are going to be cannon, with the other half being my idea. This chapter introduces and hints very subtly at Pyrrha's problem, but if you watched RWBY, then you already know what the hell that is. I will try to make it as interesting as possible, and hope that I succeed in doing so.**


	7. Chapter 7 - Pyrrha

**Author's Note**

 **Does anyone else feel that the writers could have done way more for Pyrrha? I personally feel that they had all the tools and story to make her story amazing, but just chose not to. Instead, she became a character used for Jaune's character development, to show how strong cinder was, and to show how strong and special Ruby's silver eyes are.**

 **This chapter shows my version of what I thought Pyrrha's problems could be. I'm not gonna claim that my writing and version is better than RWBY's writers, it's just that it felt like something was missing. Anyways, I hope you guys have a good time reading the chapter.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **=No Longer An Arc=**

It was getting increasingly difficult to ignore Pyrrha. To be exact, it was getting harder to act oblivious towards the negative emotions that Pyrrha were emitting. It wasn't that Pyrrha was acting depressed or angry, it was just that she was showing signs that she never did before. Small instances where her brows were furrowed, where a frown was lasting too long on her face, small signs.

In fact, most people wouldn't notice any difference. However, Pyrrha was actually not that great at hiding her emotions. If people took their time to befriend her and know here, they would also feel that something was off with the female warrior.

Although Jaune didn't know when she started to act differently, he could make an educated guess.

Weeks had already passed since Pyrrha's first fight in the elimination tournament. Ever since, she kept her streak of flawless victories. Because of his own schedule, he couldn't go and congratulate her after every fight. He would either send her a message through his scroll or try and find her on a separate occasion. During the few times that he could spectate her fight, he noticed a common factor.

It was the attention that was given to her. Before, during, and after the fight, so much attention was focused on her. Before the fights, people would already deem Pyrrha as the winner. During the battle, the spectators would always stare with awe at the way she fought, focusing only on her, completely dismissing her opponent. After the fight, they would crowd around her, showering her with praise and expectations.

It bothered Jaune, how everyone almost disregarded the effort that Pyrrha put in into mastering her style of fighting. They never praised her for her effort, or her work ethic. Everything was disregarded with a single word. Genius. When that one word was spoken, it completely negated everything. If Jaune had to guess, it was this word that started to stress Pyrrha out.

Until now, he had noticed the subtle changes that Pyrrha showed. He initially thought it was the tournament that was stressing her out. Her training filled almost her entire day. It made sense to him that this was naturally causing his friend stress. That was why he couldn't reach out to her. There really was nothing he could do other than to offer words of encouragement.

It was only recently that he was piecing the puzzle together, understanding that it was something else that was troubling his friend. Although he would have preferred to find out the source of her problems himself, it was better to ask her directly. He needed to offer her the same support she gave him. It was the least he could do. He owed her that responsibility.

At the current moment, he didn't know where Pyrrha was. He considered searching for his friend, but decided otherwise. It was about time that he gave a progress report to Ozpin. It didn't hurt to obtain feedback. Jaune had decided to trust Weiss's words. The two of them had briefed Ruby, Blake, and Yang with the mission that was entrusted to him. At first, they all questioned the headmaster's choice in selecting him. But after giving them the same excuse as they gave to Weiss, their suspicions were lowered. He remembered letting out a loud sigh of relief. As Pyrrha had told them, the truth was going to come out one day.

He neared the hallway and was heading around the corner. His footsteps stopped abruptly as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Why was Pyrrha walking towards Ozpin's office?

He blinked his eyes multiple times, as if the action would make his eyes see more clearly. No, he was certain that he was looking at Pyrrha's back. As she entered the elevator and turned around, Jaune hid around the corner to avoid being seen. Was Ozpin congratulating the representative student for the first years? That didn't make sense. The number of contestants were narrowed down to single digits, but it still wasn't a good enough reason for the headmaster to invite a student into his office.

He couldn't think of a reason. He had no choice but to ask Pyrrha herself. So he waited. He waited for a significant period of time. No matter how much he waited, she didn't come down from the headmaster's office. Now Jaune was getting worried. What were they doing there? He was about to give up on waiting, slowly standing up to leave.

At that moment, he heard the elevator doors open. Jaune came out of his hiding spot, approaching Pyrrha as she stepped out. Jaune stopped his footsteps as he stared at Pyrrha's face. He stood still, shocked at the expression Pyrrha was making. It seemed that Pyrrha didn't even notice him as she walked past him, not even looking back.

He was left alone with the empty space. Why was Pyrrha making such a pained face? She looked as if she was on the verge of tears. He quickly headed towards the elevator, heading up towards Ozpin. He wanted and needed some answers.

He rushed out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. He found the headmaster staring out the window. General Ironwood wasn't around, but that didn't matter to Jaune. Without turning around, the headmaster greeted him, holding out his mug in acknowledgement.

"How goes your task so far Jaune?" The headmaster spoke out. Jaune clenched his fist as he responded.

"It's going fine. I've managed to find trustworthy people that will accompany me in the task." He hated this side of Ozpin. How the headmaster dodged around the obvious topic.

"You know why I'm here. Tell me, what made Pyrrha act like that?" Ozpin took a sip from his mug, finally turning around to face him.

"I can only speculate as the why Ms. Nikos would act in such a manner. I've just now managed to piece some of the puzzle together. It seems that Ms. Nikos has been plagued with her own problems. Although unfortunate, I had to address a pressing issue to the huntress, which seemed to have tipped the point over. Honestly, I didn't expect Ms. Nikos to have the ability to hide her own emotions that well." The headmaster spoke with an even voice.

"What did you do?" Each word was spoken with force, the opposite of the headmaster's tone. Silence enveloped the room as the headmaster let out a sigh, taking another sip from his mug. He massaged his head a while before speaking out.

"You know of the four Seasonal Maidens, no?" Jaune paused as he registered the words of the headmaster.

"Yes. It's a fairytale." He replied hesitantly. He had no clue where the conversation was heading. Why the headmaster would talk about a children's story, he had no idea.

"What if I were to tell you, that there actually exists four seasonal maidens? That these four maidens hold considerable amounts of power. That the soul of the maiden transfers every time the current host passes away? That the maiden souls choose their next host out of their own free will?" Bewilderment filled Jaune's face as the headmaster spoke. He took a gulp as he thought. The headmaster was unique, but he would never lie to him in a serious situation like this.

As he thought over the words of the headmaster, he reached a conclusion.

"Is Pyrrha the next candidate for one of the maidens?" It was the only reason why Ozpin would tell him about this. His suspicions were confirmed as the headmaster nodded his head vertically.

"We didn't tell you Jaune, as the existence of these maidens are kept in secret. The less people know, the better. Whether you knew or not, there was no difference, so we decided to keep it hidden from you. Whether Ms. Nikos would tell you or not, that was her choice." The headmaster sighed again. Might as well tell everything to him now that he knew.

"The current Fall Maiden was attacked by unknown people. She is under treatment right now, but we suspect that she doesn't have that much time. Ms. Nikos shows to be one of the candidates, so we presented the matter to her. There exists many candidates, which the soul of the maiden chooses. If it chose the wrong candidate with impure intentions, the results would be devastating." Jaune stared at the ground as he listened. It made sense as to why the headmaster pressed the matter to Pyrrha. Still, something was wrong.

"Why was she so troubled then? She was making faces I've never seen her make." The headmaster stared at Jaune before talking.

"As I've said, I've only managed to piece the puzzle together now. Even then, I am not sure if my conclusion is the correct one. The only way you can find out, is to ask her yourself." Another sip was taken from the mug. Jaune turned around, quickly leaving the office. It was wrong of him to come for Ozpin for answers. The best way was for him to talk to her directly. He was going to find her.

 **=No Longer An Arc=**

An exasperated sigh left his mouth as he sat in one of the spectator seats. It had already been a few days since he decided to talk to Pyrrha. He couldn't. He didn't know how to approach the problem. He had been brainstorming a plan, but it had failed. Here he was, waiting for Pyrrha to show up and finish her semi-final fight.

He rested his head on his hand, with his elbow leaning on the armrest of his seat. The fight was about to begin soon. Excited murmurs and chatters could be heard as he stared at the empty stadium. His deadpanned stare continued until something caught his eye. He saw the booths in which the participants spent their time preparing. While he could see the opponent, Jaune couldn't find Pyrrha anywhere near her booth.

He felt puzzled. Pyrrha would never be late to something as important as this. It was just her personality. He sat still in his seat, glancing towards the time. The scheduled fight was to start soon, and she was still missing. She was going to come. She was going to appear. That was what he believed.

No, that was the wrong way to think. He stood up from his seat, running out of the stadium to find Pyrrha. He scrambled for his scroll, trying to contact Pyrrha. He pressed her contact info and dialed, praying that she would answer. The first ring passed, and no matter how much he waited, she didn't answer. As he was about to end the call, he heard her voice come from the other end.

"Jaune? I jus-"

"Where are you? Your fight is starting soon! You're gonna be disqualified if you don't go right now!" He yelled into the scroll. Silence was the only response he got.

"I just want to be alone right now. I need some time to think." With those words, she ended the call. Jaune stared dumbfound at the scroll, attempting to call again. The call ended as soon as he dialed the number, signifying that Pyrrha had turned her scroll off. He cursed out loudly, running around the campus grounds to find her.

He couldn't help but blame himself. Ozpin had practically told him that she faced her own problems, and he did nothing because he was afraid of his own social inability. If he had talked to her that day, then maybe she would be fighting in the freshman representative tournament right now. He grinded his teeth, thinking.

He had no idea where she was. The only clue he had was that she wanted to be alone. Where would that place be? The library? Bathroom stalls? It would be a place where no one else could be, as practically everyone in the school knew that her fight was today.

Then it hit him. One spot where no one knew of. He changed direction, heading towards the underground training facility where he fought Silvanus. There was only three people excluding Qrow that knew of the place. He sprinted down the spiral stairs that led to the underground, and a sigh of relief left his mouth as he saw a familiar patch of red hair.

He finally found her.

There she was, sitting on the ground against the wall. She was hugging her legs, her head resting on her kneecaps. She must have not noticed him yet, as she was maintaining her position.

He placed his hands on his knees, bending down as he tried to catch his breath. Jaune could see the surprised expression on her face. After a couple of more deep breaths, Jaune plopped himself down next to Pyrrha. She was still looking at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but Jaune interrupted her, holding his hand out.

"What's the problem?" After hearing his words, Pyrrha's eyes widened more.

"Look, I've known you for quite a while now, and I'm confident in myself when I say I know that something has been bothering you. You need to know that I'm not here to try and make you go to your fight. I'm here right now, to be your friend. It might be selfish and one-sided of me to say this, but if I ever have something I'm troubled with, I go straight to you. Because you're my friend. Friends share their burdens with one another. I'm here right now, so that you can share your burdens with me." A pained expression overtook Pyrrha's face.

She tilted her head back, staring at the sky. She took a few breaths before speaking.

"What do you think of me, as a huntress?" She asked. He was confused as to why she would ask such a question, but answered regardless.

"Well, your record speaks for itself. Probably the best out of all the first years. Hell, probably even better than most second years. You're the hardest worker I know. You spend almost all of the day training. On top of all of that, you're talented. You have a flexible personality, offering assistance right away. You're a role model for the younger generations." He felt uncomfortable answering, as Pyrrha was staring at him as he answered.

"I'm not those things!" She was holding her head, as if she was in pain. Did he say something wrong? "I'm… I'm not any of those things. I'm a fake Jaune, a false idol." It was his turn to be surprised. He could only look at his friend as she spoke.

"Do you know what my semblance is, Jaune?" He nodded his head horizontally. "It's polarity, magnetism. Everyone is born with a unique semblance. By some miracle, I was lucky enough to have magnetism as my semblance." His eyes lit up, slowly understanding what Pyrrha was trying to say.

Armor, weapons, bullets, all of the equipment hunters and huntresses used were made of metals. To have magnetism as a semblance was almost a cheat.

"The invincible girl that wins without using her semblance? The four time winner of the Mistral Tournament? That's all a lie! My victories all come not from my hard work or talent, it comes by the fucking miracle that is my semblance. A massive, unfair advantage is given to my opponents every fight without them even knowing!" Her voice was raspy as she yelled her words out.

"By using my semblance in a careful manner, I managed to hide my semblance completely. When I defeated my opponents, they praised me, saying I had natural talent. At first, it was amazing. The attention, the fame, the way people put me in a throne above themselves. I didn't know about the pressure that would follow." Her voice was slightly cracking.

"The feeling after I won felt too good. Without even realizing, I had already won the next Mistral Tournament. By the time I realized, it was too late for me to tell the truth to everybody. They all praised my 'talents'. I knew something had to be done. So I changed my work ethic. I had to work harder than everyone else. I didn't want to betray their belief in my so called talent. I didn't want to see what their faces would be like when they realized that it was actually my semblance that helped me win.

As I won my third and fourth title, I knew that I had to live as the false idol. I had to live up to the lie that I had created myself. There is no Pyrrha that is strong because of her work ethic or talent. There is only the Pyrrha that cheated her way through fights by having an unfair semblance.

That's why I came to Beacon instead of staying at Mistral. In hopes that I could escape from my own cage that I had trapped myself in. But word travels fast. Even here in Beacon, everyone recognized me. I can't escape from my own cage. Now, once again, I'm about to obtain something that I don't deserve." He flinched as Pyrrha's body started to shake with soft laughter.

"The Fall Maiden's power is going to be transferred to me soon. When I didn't do anything to deserve it. I'm obtaining an advantage, a power that I will have to keep hidden again.

Jaune, I don't have any friends. In fact, the only person in this entire school that I can consider my friend is you. Do you know why my only friend is you? It's because I don't make friends. I'm afraid that if someone else knows my secret, they will let everyone else know. I'm afraid of the consequences. I would rather live in solitude, but have attention, then to live in solitude filled with hate.

As to why I decided to become close to you? It was because I wanted to pity you. For the first time in my life, I discovered someone who was more vulnerable than me. Someone that was in a shittier situation than me. I was happy when I saw you fight your own brother. I was happy when you told me about your life to me. I felt alive when I was the one consoling you. I was certain that you, someone with a big secret yourself, would not tell anyone about mine if it ever came to the point where you found out. Selfish, aren't I?" Her lips were shaking as she finished.

Jaune was frozen. He didn't want to believe what he had just heard. He wanted to believe that Pyrrha was someone who reached out to him out of the kindness of her heart, not because she wanted to satisfy her own self. In all honesty, it was a selfish reason that she became friends with him. Jaune clenched his fists. He wanted to yell, scream at the huntress.

But he stopped himself. He pulled the breaks as he properly evaluated the story that Pyrrha told him. All this time, Pyrrha had been putting up a false image to everyone around her. She lived her entire life with so much pressure, hating her own gift, her semblance.

Jaune grinded his teeth. Now was not the time to project his own ideal image of Pyrrha into her. Right now, at this moment, she needed a shoulder to lean on, someone that could pull her up. Jaune knew that he was the only person capable. She had been the first to reach out to him, and he would do the same for her.

"No. You're wrong." Her eyes furrowed with confusion. "A semblance is a gift given to us, one that we can use however the fuck we want. I've seen you fight other students and Grimm. I've seen how you were able to singlehandedly slaughter the Grimm. Your semblance doesn't work against them. It was because of the effort you put in that you are able to do that. Winning just because of your semblance? Don't be so stupid. Anyone who watches the fights know that you have the fundamentals down better than anyone else. You deserve the Fall Maiden's power out of anyone." Pyrrha opened her mouth in order to intervene, but Jaune didn't let her.

"I don't care if you befriended me for your own selfishness. What matters is the result. I was a loner in this school. Everyone laughed at me, ridiculed me every chance they got. Although they still look at me with distaste, they no longer openly mock me anymore because they see you around me. Your presence alone gave me salvation from their attempts. You said it just now, right? That you consider me as your friend? That's why I'm here. If you want to keep everything a secret for the rest of your life, then I'll help keep it a secret. I'll be here for you whenever you need to let out your frustrations, whenever you feel helpless. And if you do want to tell the world…" He shifted his body, now kneeling in front of Pyrrha. She looked up towards him and made eye contact.

"If the whole world does hate you like you expect them to, then just know this. No matter what happens, I'll never turn my back on you. I'll always be next to you, sharing your burdens." As the two stared at each other, Jaune saw tears fall freely from Pyrrha's eyes. She leaned forward, leaning her head on his chest. The frame of her body shook as she sobbed.

He didn't know how long the two stayed, but after a while, Pyrrha stood up, a smile now showing.

"What am I doing here, look at the time. I don't want to be disqualified for being late now, do I?" She said as she glanced at the time on her scroll. A smile showed on his own face as he looked at her. Her aura of confidence was back, and he knew that he had managed to succeed in his momentary mission. Pyrrha was about to leave, before turning around and lightly tapping his shoulder with a fist. He turned his own head around.

"Thank you." She ran forward, towards her scheduled fight. She felt lighter, as if a heavy stone inside of her heart has been lifted. She smiled, wiping her drying tears with her free hands.

Jaune let out a loud sigh of relief as he saw the retreating form of Pyrrha. He leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down, eventually sitting on the ground, the same position he found Pyrrha in. Sweat fell down from his body as the tension left his body. It was his first time ever trying to help someone else out.

As soon as he felt strength in his legs again, he stood up. His friend was fighting in the semi-finals, and he needed to go support her. He took off, running towards the arena.

 **=No Longer An Arc=**

His eyes widened in astonishment as a laugh escaped his lips. He stared at the arena, the clear winner waving towards the arena. Did she even need his support? He would believe otherwise if she didn't tell him the truth. By the time he had arrived, the fight was already finished, with Pyrrha as the victor. His ears were numb as everyone around him was cheering for the favored huntress.

Pyrrha was still waving at the crowd as her eyes wandered the spectators. Her body froze as her eyes met the face of the person who had saved her from the problems that haunted her. As their eyes met each other's, she saw a smile form on his face. She felt her own smile form, and waved specifically towards him.

Although she didn't know the reason, she felt her heart beat faster as the two maintained their eye contact.

 **=No Longer An Arc=**

 **Afternote**

 **Currently, I'm focused more on the events that are leading to the dance and the Vytal Festival. As we approach the festival, the action will come back.**

 **Well, that was the chapter, hope you guys had fun reading!**

 **FalseOrdeals**


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